1993 GTS - Now Good to Go

I recently purchased a 1993 GTS and here were a few things in my experience to improve our collective knowledge base:

1.  My car had 20,000 miles on it, one owner, garage kept but never had any service done other than oil changes so the cam belt, water pump and engine mounts were all original.  I sent the car to a great shop -- Mo Zahr -- in Wichita and he did the belts, the pump, the mounts and a few other things and was a pleasure to deal with.  When the belts were removed, and despite being 32 years old, they looked new so I would say looks can be deceiving.

2.  When the car arrived from Wichita to Houston it came off the transporter running ok but after the first drive around the block it started running poorly.  The major problem was that it felt down on power and when you came to a stop would die.  I went to Rennlist looking for advice and got a big does of the usual advice, MAF, LH, EZK, plug wires, catalytic converter clogged and fuel pressure regulator.  I went with the thought to start with the most recent service and plugged and unplugged several connectors until I found the coil wire on the passenger side of the car had fallen out of the coil.  My advice is always start at the basics.

3.  When I looked at the car before I purchased it I noticed that the alarm did not work, the tailgate would not latch, the tailgate electric release ran but would not release the tailgate, there were no interior lights and the electric door locks were inoperative.  I had Mo Zahr look at it and based upon the wiring diagram we both agreed that a center problem with the lights was the brown/white wire going to the Alarm Control Unit (this is a GTS) was not getting a ground.  Mo ran out of time to look at it so I agreed to tackle it myself.  Here is what I discovered:

• On the tailgate latch mine finally starting latching but it would never electrically release.  I removed the receiver and bought a brand new one from Porsche and got it working correctly..  There was only the tiniest play in the little flap that the electric motor turns to release the hatch but that was enough.  If you pulled it out you never would have believed it was bad but mine was.
• On the interior lights the first problem was the location of the ACU.  I have the factory service manual and wiring diagram which identifies the location as 7cM which states in front of the glove box.  Spent literally an hour looking looked for it and then went to the forums for advice.  Got lots of advice where it was and about half the people were right -- it was located under the passenger seat.
• When I went to access it that was when I found that my passenger seat would not move all the way forward because it had, apparently, inhaled a nickel in the track at some point. Everytime I moved the seat forward and backward it would move another 1/16th of an inch.  After twenty or thirty movements it finally bent the nickel enough to move over it and spit it out.
• This is not in the manual anywhere but the ACU (on the GTS) has a slow blow fuse on it that is located on the end of the unit.  You cannot see the fuse until you remove the ACU from its protective cover.  Mine was blown.  Put a new fuse in it and the lights, door locks and alarm immediately came back to life.  Unfortunately I then learned that the lights would not turn off (i.e. probably why the fuse blew in the first place).
• After spelunking around for an hour with a meter I found that the pin switch on the tailgate receiver was no longer able to break the contact -- it was bad.  The switch is no longer available.  I disconnected the switch and everything now works.  The only thing you lose without the switch is that the lights will not trigger when you open the tailgate.

At the end of the day I resolved all of the post-delivery problems for nothing more than time and a fuse.