[DayDreamer]

Locks revert to mechanical if the battery fails. It looks like your pretty set to do the mod.. good luck

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[Robby]

Jeff- did you ever decide on the volt regs? No hurry- I'm just curious.

Daydreamer- did you get a chance to take any pics? If you can this weekend, that would be really cool- I'd just like to see how it's in there. I ALSO need to see how many cables connect. In a front mount, there are ~4 small lugs that come in & attach at the side of the main [+] cable at the [+] post. I'm trying to figure out how this works w/the rear mounts, etc. I'd actually like to know what all the small ones are- I know that two come together as one lug & connect to fuse box & that one of them is for ABS, but not sure on the others.

Anchorman- good point on accessing w/dead battery & Daydreamer is right that the door locks (at least passenger) revert to manual in the event of power loss. But, when the battery is in forward location, one can actually get to the [+] post from the back, w/out opening the hood & then ground to something else. But a rear mount would be tougher to get to....

This brings up a confusing issue for 944's & Rennlisters. In 1986, the 944 Turbo (& I assume all 944s) had a full manual hatch- I'm pretty sure it was 100% manual. My 1988 Turbo S, lost power one day- I could not get into the car as I had upgraded to 968 handles (& mirrors) & I did not attach the tumblers correctly or something- RLers told me to get in through the hatch- I had already tried & it would not work- they told me I was nuts. I paid $30 for Pop-A-Lock to get me into my car. I then found out from other RLers that the design had changed- several times, I think- I think there is a partial electric opening design that WILL open when power fails & then there are full power ones that will not open when power fails.

After my situation, I went to my mech- he told me I was crazy & that when power went out, just turning the key would open the hatch, that they ALL would. To prove I was wrong, he unhooked the eletric mechanism & tried the key. Watching him crawl through my car to hook it back up was one of the highlights of my dealings w/him as he's one of those who can never be wrong. Ever since then, I have wanted to convert to full manual. I THINK the 968CS is 100% full manual & has a cable w/a handle, that one can use to open the hatch from inside the car. This is what I want, but I need more pics of the actual set-up to make it happen- anyone...?

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[jeffski1]

Thanks for checkin' in Robby. Well, I'm gonna have to pass for now. My water pump just puked coolant all over Flash's garage floor two days ago. Ugh! So, I guess you can figure out where most of my disposable income is going for now. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img]

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[Robby]

No prob- I understand- my car has leaked every car fluid known to man at one time or another. I swear if I have another PS leak w/in the next 5yrs I'll convert to manual. Let me know when things get better- I have plenty of them & am not really pushing them at the moment. Right now I'm working more on the battery cables than anything & trying to get some rear mount kits going, as well as Euro driving light harness for 951's. Not sure if you've done anything w/youir battery cables, but if not, please check for cracks. At worst case, a short can potantially total your car out. I hope your coolant prob is an easy fix...

keep in touch
Robby

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[DayDreamer]

Here are the pictures of the battery in the rear cubby. The +VE is a single heavy duty cable that runs into the bodywork never to be seen again [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]. Its also got an extra spongy insulation wrapping on it similar to that used on Air Con Pipes.

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[DayDreamer]

+Ve Side looking down from top over battery

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[DayDreamer]

Here you can see bothe cables and the battery height... hope this all helps...

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[flash]

that won't work easily in american cars though - there is a plate on which the battery sits that is welded in - no way to retrofit that easily in the US version

on top of that, the battery would then be on the heavy side of the car - that would be bad, especially for track guys

however, there is a way to do it on the other side - i have a working prototype - i am just waiting on the sheet metal shop right now so that i can duplicate it - they have been really slammed and have a few projects of mine backed up - they say there is a break coming up and can get to my stuff

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[Robby]

Thanks for the pics. Yes, ,there is a plate underneath that levels the battery out, but I'm not sure how difficult it would be to make something work there anyway, except that like Bob says- the left side is slightly heavier already & we'd be pulling ~30lbs OFF of the right front & putting it onto the left rear- would really mess up the corner balancing a bit so something would have to be done to compensate for us perfectionists. The right side is also bigger I beleive. One side is definitely bigger- I THINK it's the right. I've got mine in the center- it's as far back & down as can possibly be & I saved 29lbs on the spare- of course, that has it's own pros & cons.

One thing I'm noticing here- there is only one main [+] & one main [-] cable here. Do your cars have an engine ground up front from chassis where the battery on US cars would be? Also, where do the little [+] cables attach too that normally attach to the [+] post on US cars? One is for the ABS, another is for the twin cables that run to the fuse box, etc- there should be ~4 of the little 1/4" lugs & they should be somewhere near where the battery would be on US cars- I can send pics if you need, but hopefully you know what I'm talking about...?

thanks again,
Robby

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[flash]

the ground point at the rear is on US cars too, so i'm pretty sure the front one is there on ROW cars - i ran my battery ground cable over there to the one in the rear

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