March 9, 2012 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 3 Comments

By David Jones I find that the link behind the fan shroud is a good place to start. This would be pushrod #6 connected to bellcrank #5 in the drawing (shown below). Disconnect both carb downlinks before starting. Make this rod as long as is sensible with the ball connector for the pull rod down to the trans bellcrank as high as possible without fouling any other component. Now look at the connection at the trans bellcrank end of this pull rod #4 and make sure it is aligned with the connection on the bellcrank such that they are almost in line with each other. You may have to lengthen or shorten this rod to make it align and it is also possible that it is the wrong one if it seems impossible to align as Porsche made about 4 different lengths for different models. Once pullrod #4 is set the bellcrank #3 should be positioned such that the arm that attaches to the pull rod from the pedal linkage is at about 10 to 15 degrees before the vertical allowing a decent arc of movement thr...

December 10, 2011 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 2 Comments

By John Willhoit The twin pipe "Sport" muffler that some of the vendors sell is actually a muffler that was made by Dansk for the early T1 cars that has no S pipes going through the bumper guard. I guess some marketing person at Stoddard had the idea to sell it as a "sport" muffler since they could sell more. That's been going on for 25 years or so. The outlet pipes have restrictors and this muffler has been proven to not make the same power as a stock, later type muffler (see this article). If you have an early car, buy a stock 356A muffler and add extensions to the stock outlets.The Super Sound muffler from Dansk does in fact have larger pipes inside the muffler, and a larger cross over tube, so it does (should) reduce back pressure and (should) make more power. It is sold with two chrome resonators (very stupid looking BTW), and without these resonators your engine will be really loud and back fire on deceleration. We used one of these mufflers on a car, and the only way to mak...

November 21, 2011 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 5 Comments

By Craig Stevenson, Volume 30 -1 May / June 2006In an effort to make your 356 more comfortable for the future, let me share an upgrade that will not  interfere with the originality of your car and will give especially great advantage to those haunted with leg and hip problems. In my years of working on 356 cars, I have seen several owners having to sell their cars simply because they just could not use the standard shift clutch anymore. Automatics? Please!The simple answer is to replace the 356 throwout bearing with an early 911 type. You cannot, however, just swap the bearings. First, the transmission must have the guide tube-design throwout bearing type 741 used from 1960-65. Sorry about  those  who have early A and pre-A cars, but for those who are utilizing the later 741 boxes in A cars... lucky you!This may seem like a lot of hassle, but let me explain the advantages. The 901 throwout bearing has a much longer center collar that rides on the bearing guide. The bearing is better...

June 18, 2011 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 0 Comments

By Ron LaDow(originally published in Vol. 31, No. 4, 356 Registry magazine) If you wish to print this article for reference, you can download it as a PDF file, click here. In beverages, carburetors and other matters, we all have our favorites; I'm partial to Zenith carburetors. The 32NDIX (type NDIX, 32mm throttle bores) were fitted to more of our cars than any others. Whoever worked out, or lucked into, the transition circuitry in these things did us all a favor; no flat spots from idle to wide open. The type NDIX has also been in production longer than any of the stock 356 carbs (until 2005) and they are available at 36mm throttle bores to compliment our aftermarket big-bore kits. Sooner or (mostly) later, they will need attention. But before you decide to rebuild them, make sure that's what they need and what you want. "Zenith problems" are like any "carb problems": 90% of them are directly attributable to something other than the carbs. Carburetors are mechanical objects ...

May 13, 2011 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 0 Comments

By Paul ChristensenWhen we rebuild our trusty little engines correctly, we send parts out to be inspected and reconditioned. Often the reconditioning process means removing metal from a surface to expose a new smooth surface for better sealing or contact area. Items that need attention include rocker arms, cylinder head surfaces, bearing bores, cam followers, flywheels and so on down the list. With reconditioning in mind, I would like to bring some attention to the flywheel and clutch surfaces.Depth gage from clutch surface to friction surface, and the Porsche Spec’s book.When the flywheel is reconditioned, the proper method is to remove just enough material from the clutch friction surface so that you have a nice smooth area for the clutch disc to contact. A like amount of material must be removed from the surface that the pressure plate mounts to so that you have the correct depth which is 24,0 mm (.945”) on the 180 mm clutch and 25,0 mm (.984) on the 200 mm clutch. This is the st...

March 23, 2011 | Research & Identification | 0 Comments

By Roy Lock, Robert Laepple, and Charlie WhiteDownload the PDF file Porsche Factory Service Bulletin List.pdf  Within the triad of Porsche factory technical information, the Workshop Manuals and Parts Manuals formed the base. These two manuals were openly sold to all at local Porsche dealerships and continually updated and revised. Service Bulletins (SB’s) are the third component of technical documentation from the Porsche Factory. SB’s distributed only to dealerships and contained ancillary information which did not appear in the two sister manuals. Many were destroyed or discarded after use. Because SB’s were only sent to authorized Porsche dealerships, they are less known and to this day are mystical and in some cases, folkloric in stature. The surviving original SB’s are rare. However, because these did not share the notoriety of the other two legs of the triad, SB’s are not as valuable except to connoisseur collectors. SB content ranged from administrative to technical in nat...

March 23, 2011 | Safety & Driving | 2 Comments

By Gordon Maltby Reprinted from the 356 Registry magazine Let's assume we're all in agreement that seatbelts are a good thing. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a small, light car designed half a century ago is just not going to afford its occupants the kind of crash protection found in a modern car. Knowing that, there are still some things we can do to these little beasties to tip the odds in our favor. Short of installing a roll cage, one of the most effective self-preservation tools we can bring along for the ride is a set of seat belts. Better than lap belts only, are three-point belts, and (if you remember the late sixties and those stationary shoulder belts) it's most convenient if they're retractable. There may be some compelling arguments for not installing belts in a 356, but the only one I can think of is authenticity, or keeping a "look." Consider then, that Porsche did offer seat belts as an option, or a retrofit beginning in about 1957 [see photo at right s...

January 18, 2011 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 2 Comments

Text and photos by Kurt Anderson When I installed the Klasse356 dual M/C on my 64C, I altered the installation in order to keep the car more stock looking. I did not install their dual reservoir. I kept my original and put a "T" in the line just below the reservoir bracket (it looks stock unless you take the steering coupler inspection plate off).  From the "T" I ran one hose over the top torsion bar tube, and one hose under the top torsion bar tube. I attached both hoses to the bolt that held the original reservoir line (using rubber padded clamps), and then attached another clamp setup to the body wall just above the pedal cluster. Works great. The dual reservoir is fine, but is not needed. With the "T" and two hose setup, if I spring a leak in the one-half of the system, it will quickly drain that half of the system and all the fluid from stock reservoir. BUT- since it is gravity feed from the "T" to the M/C, the other half of the system retains all of it's fluid, plus the fluid...

December 3, 2010 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 2 Comments

Text and photos by Jim Ansite and Roy LockYou are enjoying a drive on a lovely fall day. Cruising along at 3400 RPM’s, suddenly there is a loud bang! You quickly shut off the engine and coast off the highway. Getting out of the car for a closer examination, you see a big puddle of oil, a smoking engine, and realize that shutting off the engine was a wise decision.Previously, you had noticed a whistling noise at speed and had tried to have it diagnosed and fixed to no avail. Once you get your 356 up on the lift, shards of metal fall out of the engine compartment. A close examination of the shrapnel indicates a cooling fan failure. As dangerous as those are, all the shrapnel was contained by the engine and its components. It was truly a catastrophic failure. ALL the blades separated from the two cooling fan end plates. Never in my 35 plus years of association with 356’s and 912’s had I seen all the blades separate. Here is the evidence of failure. Here are the pieces of the cooling f...

December 1, 2010 | Troubleshooting & Repair | 0 Comments

By Ron LaDow If you are not contemplating or in the midst of an engine rebuild, you probably don't care about compression ratio. If you are, there are certain facts which should figure in your thinking. Engine life is inversely related to engine RPM. The 'power' an engine makes is largely irrelevant to engine longevity. An engine that makes 100HP at 5,000 RPM, and limited to that speed, will far outlast an engine that makes 75HP at 6,000RPM, and regularly run to that speed. Loads increase linearly with power and geometrically with speed. Engine speeds above 5,000 RPM are where almost all horsepower is quoted since it’s easier to make big horsepower numbers there. It's just not easy to make them at the RPMs commonly used; those big numbers are swapped for power elsewhere in the engine speed range. It's also easy to make noise, and this is entirely too often confused with power. There are four ways of increasing power in the range between 2,000 and 5,000 RPM,...