Tool Pants

We tried 5 years ago with no luck, but maybe I should give it another try. I have something like a PST2 but I would like a Canadian car to try it on. The local gal with the 1999 Canadian car is gone. We both have the old style cluster used 1997-2000. If you have the OBC as an option or did the retrofit send me pictures of all the displays you see as you move the lever or push on the switch. Also take pictures of the entire cluster that shows all the analog gauges. When the UK guys started doing the OBC retrofit I was suprised at the pictures. UK is a metric country. This is Grant's new style cluster - I think a 2003 - that he did the retrofit on. The analog speedo is miles. The digital speedo is miles but that you can change with the knob. The odometer is in miles. But the temp display is celsius.

That joint is under a big load and I bet it comes apart the first time you use it. The joint is made of white plastic now. There is a US company that makes a metal joint for the Boxster. As you know, Porsche does not sell just the joint - you have to buy the entire arm. One guy bought some generic metal joints because he did not want to pay Porsche prices. http://www.mcmaster.com/ Maybe you can find something like that in your area. I could not figure out how to do a link to the catalog page with the joints so here is a screen shot. Part number is 9416K96.

I de-snorked by 1988 Toyota pickup today. Does that count? :unsure:

There is only one Tool Pants. :blush: That was a long time ago. I have a US car and did the OBC retrofit. I asked Peter Smith if he could change the OBC from English to metric on my car with the PST2. He tried but was not able to. If he was able to do it then there was a local owner with a Canadian car with OBC and I would have asked him to change her metric display to English. Tim Benson also has a PST2 and he was not able to change her display. Peter tried this many years ago so I do not know if something has changed since then. If you look in PET for North America US and Canadian clusters have different part numbers.

PET has the actuator for 1997-2000 as 996 624 117 00 and it is shown as #20 on the parts diagram. 2001 up is 986 512 117 00 and is shown as #22 on the diagram. But as you say, yours looks like #22. So the diagram is wrong (and it would not be the first time PET has been wrong) or you got a weird car. Let us know what it turns out to be. Funny that it apparently has never worked, but then I could not see what it would have to do with the fact you have an Aerokit.

Here is the guy that came up with a way to stop the motor sooner. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1928

I think I know what is going on. Don't quote me because it has been many years since it was explained to me by Peter Smith and Bob Grigsby. Peter was the shop foreman at my local Porsche dealer and the Porsch Club of America tech advisor for the Boxster. Bob has a local independent Porsche shop and puts on Boxster tech sessions. They told me what the problem is with a 1997 but I did not pay much attention because of all the local tops we have fixed none had the problem you have. One end of the cable goes into the motor. The other end is connected to a worm gear inside the transmission. That worm gear is connected to a half moon gear with X amount of teeth. It is like the half moon gears does not have enough teeth on it and you come off the gear as you said. The cable and worm gear are spinning but because the worm gear is not engaged with the half moon gear the V arm does not move. You need to check with Mark in Sunnyvale on this board as he may know how to fix this situation. If you went to a Porsche shop in my area you would be told to get rid of the old style transmissions that were used 1997-1999 and replaced them with the new style that come out for model year 2000. The new style does not have a half moon gear. Some time ago I remember a thread on this board about a similar problem. The guy figured out a way to stop the motor from spinning before it came off the gear. When the clamshell goes down it pushes on the lever on top of the transmission. I think there is a plastic thing on the bottom of the clamshell where it makes contact with the lever. This lever sends a signal to the top relay to let the motor run for a few seconds and then stop. If it does not stop in time then you come off gear. I remember Peter telling me that in the old days he would take a tape on wheel weight and stick it on the bottom of the clamshell where it pushes the lever down. Like a spacer/shim. This would cause the motor to stop a fraction of a second sooner so you would not go off the gear. I'll look around and see if I can find the prior thread on this issue. In the meantime you need to contact Mark. He has a 1997.

You need a USA instrument cluster. Or, just live with it.

I seem to miss out on the business opportunities. Where is Fabspeed when you need them? My mother is not looking - so - a fart can on a Tecumseh. I used an MJB European Roast coffee can because it has a green and black label to match the green and black colors of the mower. Now I got to get me some neon....

What pads are you trying to put in. How many miles on the rotors. Any pictures.

I also have a 1997 and here is the connector to the motor. It is a dc motor so it runs in both directions. Search around in the top/roof section as I think someone went through testing the motor or power to the motor. Right now I do not have the time to look in the shop manual and wiring diagram.

I would have to ask Peter to be sure but I cannot think of why it would not fit. The thing is. You do not see the 996 "oil starvation" issue on the Boxster because the engine is "backwards" on the 996.

Then my guess is that the top motor has given up the ghost.

That RMS stuff is for the foreign crap made offshore in Finland and Germany. The mover is American iron. Craftsman Eager-1. Made for Sears by American Yard Products with a bulletproff Tecumseh engine. Holds 21 oz of oil. Warmed the mower up and then let it drain for 21 minutes. Used Chevron 10W-30 - the best oil sold by Wal-Mart. No synthetic dino juice here. The mower even has a dipstick. No funny gauge. I think this oil is not approved by Tecumseh and I overfilled by putting in 22 oz. What should I do? Is it safe to start? I'm thinking of putting in a lightweight carbon fiber blade so it will get up to speed faster....

Tecumseh sport exhaust. I did not think about that. Another lost business oportunity. In order to remove the carb I had to take all the stuff off the top of the engine, and then had to remove the muffler in order to get my ratchet wrench socket on the carb bolts. The muffler has 11 holes. I think I might drill a few more holes in the muffler for a free flowing sport exhaust. Make more noise, like Porsche did with the 993 motor sound option by drilling holes in the air box. Then hide from my neighbors when I start the mower up.... Maybe I'll de-snorkel it instead. :o

I wish K&N would get into the lawn mower air filter business. :lightbulb: I found a Sears Craftsman lawn mover with a Tecumseh engine. Side valve, vertical shaft, 185 cc, 6 hp. Air-cooled like a real Porsche. It would not run for more than a few seconds. I rebuild the carburetor and now it runs like new. Starts on the first pull like an Eager-1 should. During my test run I did not put the paper air filter on. Think of all the stuff that a lawn mower engine can suck in, like burning cigarette butts, and the Tecumseh engine uses a paper air filter. You should have heard the awesome induction sound with no air filter. From my seat-of-the-pants testing after the rebuild and without the air filter on, I would estimate 6.001 hp. I just need to find a filter than can flow more air and I think I can boost it up to 6.002 hp. Or maybe I will stack 2 filters together like I did on the Toyota. Two air filters will flow more air....

Make sure the latch is unlatched all the way. Put yout finger in the hole where the latch goes and push your finger in and out while you push on the switch. Pull out the top relay/control unit, gave it a tap, and put it back in. Or swap the relay with another 1997-1999. If that does not work then you need to see if there is 12 volts to the top motor or if the motor is bad.

I never liked the K&N hype. In my younger days I had had 3 cars with filters that used oil to trap contaminants, but they were not K&N. Even had one on my motorcycle. I was into the hype back then. At our local events I have put in K&N and BMC filters for the local owners - it is their car. I have owned my Boxster for 8 years and I am sticking to the paper air filter. K&N comes with a K&N sticker that you can stick on your car. If you are still under warranty do not stick it on the air box in case you have a problem with the air flow sensor. I do not know if this is still true, but for a while if you air flow sensor was replaced by a dealer under warranty the sensor and the filter had to be sent back to Atlanta as poof you were not using an oiled filter. If your goal is to hear more induction noise then you can remove the layer of foam from the stock filter. Zero cost and you still have a paper filter. K&N - the world's best filter. Flows more air. Superior filtration properties. Then what? No filter. A dirty filter. On what application. Hype. If you need to flow more air then remove your filter. Years ago we had a local Boxster dyno day to test filters. It has been a long time but I remember one of the best hp gain was no filter. I have a 1988 Toyota pickup that I have owned for 18 years. I figured out a way to meet the K&N claims. Stack 2 filters. :lol:

From my failing memory. US version of Traffic Pro was discontinued about 2 years ago. I remember because a bunch of us Boxster owners bought them for about $400 from Crutchfield or ebay. It was 4773. 4763 is the same but says Porsche. For a while even Becker was selling both versions at a substantial discount.

Glad it finally worked out. 996 non-MOST cluster retrofit on a MOST Boxster and the 996 cluster even has the dot matrix display. The only person I know that did this is bluboy 911 but he removed the oil pressure and volt meter gauges - so minus 1 point. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?s...p;hl=radio+code What I call the old style cluster was used on the Boxster from 1997-2000, and on the 996 from 1998 (1999 in the US)-2001. The new style was used on the Boxster from 2001-2004, and on the 996 from 2002-2004. The old and new style do not interchange. Other things to consider. A tiptronic cluster has gear position indicator lights that the manual transmission does not have. The first year for the dot matrix cluster was the first year of the turbo - 2001 - but you do not want to use a turbo cluster. The first year for the dot matrix cluster on the Boxster was 2002 and I think the same year for the 996. You got the dot matrix cluster if you have factory OBC.

You remove the side marker and stick a long screwdrive through the hole to the back of the female connector. Use the tip of the screwdrive to hold the connector in place. Then have your helper slide the headlight in.

You push the blue plastic thing on the side to remove the key.

And look at this. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2673

To get them off you need to stick a small screwdriver under the clip and pry it back just a little bit. Then you can separate the ball joint. Watch out you do not scratch the paint when the joint separates. First pic is the screwdriver. Second shows both struts off. Third shows the dab of grease I put on the male joint. The female socket on the strut has a bit of grease in it, but I wanted some on the male part where the clip locks the joints together. To get the new struts on you can just push them on the ball joint - no need to mess around with the clip.