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Project Jelly Bean (AKA Kinda Green ’99 996 911)


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My sneaky wife caught me looking at this car when it  was advertised on GT and liked it!! I kinda figured that it would need work - but we were planning a long holiday - so i wasnt allowed to look into it.

Glad that the the stuff you got to fix isnt too bad and that you will be able to enjoy the Jelly Bean while being a new dad. (Congratulations).

Anyway fix it good as I might be coming to see you if you are allowed to get a Cayman AND my wife still likes the colour.

Peter in the US & Caribbean

PS: my mate is building a LowCost, it that what yours is?

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@dan_189 It had ~ 135K on it when i purchased it and i have put another 5K on it since.

 

@Zelrik911 Thanks for the congrats, going to be a fun time. Might be sleeping in the car some nights!

I was looking at it, the guy took a few days to get back to me and i had purchased another car. Before finally coming back to buy it. The Cayman idea would be that it would replace the lowcost, though not sure how i can swing it as the lowcost costs ~$70 a month including fuel to keep around and there hard to sell.

So yes the car in the background is a Lowcost (Haynes roadster width and then my own mods to adjust seating etc), It has a BMW 318IS drive train under it. Built it over about 3 years and did it all including welding, fiberglass, painting, seats, etc. Not sure how i found the time looking back!

Little but fat though as its around 700kg, but it will keep up with Honda powered Elises so its still pretty damn quick. Wife hates it!

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On Sunday hit the big job of replacing the gearbox mount... that really lacked in fun. Did it on the car as opposed to pulling the box.

DIY a puller tool, but it turned out the threaded bar was not up to the task so ended up shearing or dethreading ~8 bolts or threaded bar before using joining nuts to give my enough bite to pull it the last the of way in.

Phone went flat before i finished so no photos of the last part of the pressing.

The old mount:

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So the way i did it to give me clearance was to use a silent man and then raise the car slightly so i could get clear access to the mount.

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The puller, i did add a piece of tube on the thick plate side to give space for the center section to fit into.

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Also replaced the wheel speed grommets with the ones from Clark Rubber

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Next is handbrake and later in the week suspension bump stops.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Guys, Some more progress, got another pile of parts from Pelican, added in some bolts and spark plugs just because i could without upping the postage. SCPHeMf.jpg Task 1 - replace the bump stops These are the 3 nuts to remove the shock, dont use a rattle gun on them... see next pic for what happens when do that and you dont check which way you had the gun set... LUCalC9.jpgrOXjqDW.jpg Instead do this... d2WU6zY.jpg What it looks like in pieces, the new stop is sitting on the shock while i waited for a new top plate 3aFlHRW.jpg While at it replaced the wear sensors on the front which i didnt do when i did the pads recently. mPgvwEv.jpg Getting the top off needs the use of a vice and a spring compressor but the springs are so small you struggle to get the compressor on both sides. So just had to go with single side... Ud5MH2d.jpg Coming back together EIqoNEp.jpg A jack makes it much easier to bolt up. vOUI7BB.jpg And all back in together s0XvR7v.jpg. Nlea08p.jpg Gotta love that you can fit all of the parts and tools in the front! O0IHWEA.jpg Also adjusted the handbrake, says to back off 9 turns but while better i think its not tight enough so still need to redo it. Non self adjusting handbrake... really? J1C1TBB.jpg So now to book it back in for the roady. Going to give it a decent run through high country early next week so will report back on how many more things i find it needs. Then we will have: Engine oil + filter Gearbox oil + filter (Got the pump) Fuel Filter Fix the center console hinge LHS hinge and softtop motor Fuel cap motorised thingo that makes way too much noise cheers, Taffy

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You're going really well Taffy, kudos to you mate .... just couldn't resist putting this great photo of the jellybean with this! Once you're done with the maintenance, just gotta buy the Coxster on Gumtree and put the new int in:Chuckle2: ... oh and do a R to L conversion as well.....

0h6l5kew3yo4bbbb34dhu.jpg?pxc_method=fit

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  • 4 weeks later...

The high country drive was pretty good, 2 days hit:

  • Black Spur
  • Jamieson-Elidon Rd
  • Mt Buller
  • Falls Creek (Both sides)
  • Omeo Hwy
  • Mt Hotham (Both sides)

0 police discussions, all traffic got out of the way up and the cars didnt miss a beat.

The Sat Nav install was a good move, lets you see the road 3-4 turns ahead at a glance. A heads up display on the windscreen would be pretty good... but that is not high on my to do list.

 

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Also got the past through the roady without issue 2nd time round as i gave them instructions on how the car works and photos of everything down to brake disc thickness.

The car is now on Vic plates, success!

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  • 1 month later...

The car has had a noisy fuel cap solenoid for a while and i ordered one from pelican a few months back. Decided to take a crack at replacing it, didnt go to plan.

The solenoid is on the windscreen side of the fuel cap, easy enough just go in through the wheel arch right?

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FYI porsche picked 3 ways of holding the lining on... why not?

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You get the guard off and you faced with this... not looking good now.

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You see those 2 bolts at the top of this pic... that is what you need to get undone. Turns out its a guard off job as you cannot actually get to them due the structure of the car.

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At this point i gave up and will need to come back to it when i feel like pulling the car to pieces totally...

 

Project 2, fix the broken hinge on the centre console

Getting the it apart is pretty easy just undo all of the torx bolts on the bottom of the arm rest/lid.

Inside you will see something like this, apart from you will have the strap around the piece of metal. The issue is that the hinges snap, you can see the plastic broken in the background.

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The fix is to install a metal hinge in its place

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This is how it fits on the cover

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A this is help in place with a couple of rivets you need to put these little U shaped pieces of metal in openings at the back of the plastic which you drill into and pull the rivet up against

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Using the metal hinge as a guide drill the holes, put a rivet in the first before you drill the second so it does not move.

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Pop the rivets

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Put the pin back in through the new hinge and put the spring back in place as well, leaving off the metal spring/strap holder

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Feed the strap through and secure with the metal bracket, then replace the torx to hold the armrest on

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Ordered parts for the soft top motor, due early next month. Also will soon replace all the fluids and filters (engine, fuel and gearbox) which looks pretty straight forward.

 

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7 hours ago, firstone said:

Nice work. Where did you get the metal hinge?

Hey firestone,

I got mine from Pelican parts, part number 996-552-960-01 ($38 USD)

But i have seen them all over the net since while looking for other parts, so might be cheaper options.

Cheers,

Taffy

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Nice to see you here taffy!

this is a total coincidence but here is a pic of my previous 911

ZpR7v1y.jpg

 

wheels photoshopped in this pic but they are the wheels i ended up with. it was an awesome car and I should have never sold it as they have doubled in price in the condition/combo :(

great minds think alike! the color really grew on me. I have now bought a cayman S and its also a great car. i will keep track of your build and thanks for sharing!

 

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7 hours ago, dangero said:

Nice to see you here taffy!

this is a total coincidence but here is a pic of my previous 911

ZpR7v1y.jpg

 

wheels photoshopped in this pic but they are the wheels i ended up with. it was an awesome car and I should have never sold it as they have doubled in price in the condition/combo :(

great minds think alike! the color really grew on me. I have now bought a cayman S and its also a great car. i will keep track of your build and thanks for sharing!

 

Haha had a few lotus/7 owner join the Porsche ownership recently. 

Pretty much don’t drive the clubby these days but it’s cheap keep around. 

Cayman are great cars, had a base 2.7 in Hawaii and was the best car I had ever driven. Congrats!

You had a very nice looking 911 there, looks like you had the car I wanted but as you say prices rose a lot. 

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Next job was trying to get the softop running, this seemed to be linked to the clam not running. To fix i purchased the repair kit.

Since the arrival last week of the new family addition i am doing this all in the my own garage, no hoists.

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Top into maintenance position

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Normally dont need to remove this cover over the roll bars but i am, mine is pretty stuffed after a previous owner hacked at it...

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Remove the carpet ... lack of space means the 7 gets to store all the removed parts!

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This is what we are after, the motor is the silver bit behind the black long plastic box

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To replace the shaft with the repair kit one we need to get this one out, to do that you need to unscrew the bolt on the end which is reverse threaded. To get mine out i need to hold onto the shaft with pliers

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Then push it through to get the circlip, its spring loaded so a PITA to get at

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The two shafts, the new one was longer so i ended up using springs on both sides which seemed to work pretty well

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You dont need to undo the small screws... but assembled again

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At this point i had the clam running again but the top would run cycle properly...

Video of issue

Youtube video of the issue

So referencing this site: https://www.porscherepair.us/porsche-996-diagnosis/diagnosistroubleshooting-convertible-top.html

I took a look at the microswitches in the softtop itself... after along time testing and playing with the switches not a lot of success and infact it got worse as the top now wont latch without manual intervention to pull it into place on the windscreen.

In this pic you can see the 3 microswitches at the bottom

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Testing there function

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Checking the control board for cracks

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And now i am stuck... any ideas?

 

 

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My googling has turned a little more info:

80-996_cab_clamshell_drive_c4e126c098e88

And all of the top micro switch locations

80-cab_top_switches1_c33cf816925076eb77a

Switch 3, working ok

Switch 4 x 3 seem to be working...

Switch 5... not sure

Switch 9... not sure

Switch 8 is noted above and may be out of sync

Switch 6 all good

Switch 7 not sure, but did read another set of posts that these were an issue.

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Well after doing a little more work on the top it will move further to just short of closed and then just stops. Thinking it may be a calibration issue now.

Ordered a syringe to refill the hydraulics and looking at (got outbid on one today :() getting a foxwell N510/520 to help understand what is going on.

 

Moved onto the task of spark plug replacements but a major $$%#$% moment has come up.

Left bank, tip remove the muffler else its a PITA to get at everything.

Just removing the cover plate does not give you much room.

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But remove the muffler and it gives you some space, but the muffler mount remains a PITA for 1 cylinder.

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Noted it seemed to have a miss, assume its a loose plug. Forgot to come back to it when i did the right side to confirm.

Right side, same thing remove the muffler and the mount is still a PITA.

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The %^$$%% issue... on the final rear plug tube it looks like this:

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Had a panic that i had a cracked head and a quick google told me its just the spark plug tubes, so all good... needed to put the car back in the garage and noted it still had the slight miss but seemed ok.

Sitting at dinner it dawned on me that those tubes sit through the cam covers... if i had knocked out those parts they could be floating around jamming things... $%%$%$

Does not look like i will be able to pull out the tubes in 1 piece anyway so looks like it will need to be a cam off job, but my reading shows mixed messages in if i need a special look to stop the cams moving.  The photo below shows a pretty simple tool being used to hold one end.

pic02.jpg

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Anyone here pulled the cam cover off a 996 / 986 and can confirm?

This being a $10K engine i am a little nervous here, i dont even think twice on a BMW M44 pulling it apart but the damage is at worst $1K. So thinking i might look at getting an indie to do this and also re calibrate the top.

Any suggestions in Melbourne?

 

 

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Doing some more reading they note that they dont pull these pieces out due to the bigger issue being the seals for the CAM and that being plastic it will just smash up and come out the other end. Still not sure but given i ran it already i guess i am already down that path... 

 

Renn Tech thread

This thread says: "He said they always replace the tubes because they crack or bits of plastic fall off when removing the tubes. He said not to worry if bits of plastic fall into the cam cover as it will not harm anything."

And also backed up here: Pelican parts forum

"Which pieces? Plastic in general is not something to be too terribly concerned about in the engine (as opposed to metal pieces). It will eventually make it's way to the sump probably after it's chopped up by the metal moving parts of the engine. I might not remove the cover to go looking for it because the cover may end up leaking afterwards, and it's in general a pretty difficult task to do with the engine in the car."

"If you look at a photo of what is under the spark plug tubes, you have the cams and the lifters. I suppose in the worst case scenario, the piece of plastic can clog one of the oil passages, but the odds of that are probably not too high. I think it will work itself into the sump eventually. Removal of the cover in order to go find it is of course be the "correct" thing to do. But, that is not a terribly easy procedure, and then you will have to reseal the cam cover under the car. There's no gasket so you will have to clean out the entire seam and then reseal it. If you don't get it 100%, then the cam cover will leak oil. So you have to pick your poison..."

 

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I have never had a 996, but from my limited reading a 'miss' is usually a dodgy COP coil on those.

Unless your old plugs were totally swimming in oil, I wouldn't be too concerned about the tube. You dont want a leaky oil engine - after all you dont have an air cooled engine where its nearly compulsory.

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28 minutes ago, Zelrik911 said:

I have never had a 996, but from my limited reading a 'miss' is usually a dodgy COP coil on those.

Unless your old plugs were totally swimming in oil, I wouldn't be too concerned about the tube. You dont want a leaky oil engine - after all you dont have an air cooled engine where its nearly compulsory.

haha, very true. Given it was fine before i started and only playing up after hopefully its just that i didnt seat it or plug in properly.

*Ordered 6 tubes and seals + a Foxwell NT520, will write up how well it works.

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11 hours ago, Taffy said:

haha, very true. Given it was fine before i started and only playing up after hopefully its just that i didnt seat it or plug in properly.

*Ordered 6 tubes and seals + a Foxwell NT520, will write up how well it works.

Two recommendations:

 The BEST sealer I have ever used is  THREEBOND 1104, essential for aircooled 911s. If you have to buy expensive (Beru) sparkplugs - I would go for NGK Iridium.

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Thanks for the suggestion, put in Bosch spark plugs from Pelican but it had Beru. When I get the tubes will probably swap out again for a higher spec one. In good news the miss which had me panicked was a missed connection on a plug. But it did mean the car ran well until oil flooded the other plug and now it feels down on power but idle is smooth so will leave it until the tubes arrive.

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