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AFRICA DEE · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: Converting a LHD to a RHD

South Africa's legislation is changing to outlaw all LHD motorvehicles from driving on public roads. The current legislation allready prohibits the sale of a LHD.

My 931 is LHD. It was bought from the factory in 1981 by the local importer at the time, where it was a Porsche fleet car.

Question:- What would one require to convert the car to RHD. It is obvious that I will either have to get a RHD dashboard or make a custom one, but I am more intersted in the brake and steering hardware required, interchangeability etc?

As a matter of interest, we still sell the original Mark 1 Golfs in SA as an entry level vehicle, (i.e. new cars, from 1.4fi's to 1.8fi's at volumes of approximately 15 000+ per year) so Mark 1 steering assembly, pedals, and cross member goodies are all available brand new and not very expensive?

Advice will be much appreciated.
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1980 924 N/A Ex-931 Track car: My cash guzzler
2004 996 4S: My Weekend plaything
2012 VW POLO GT: My daily commuter

Rich H · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject:

find a RHD scrapper then start stealing bits!

The brakes are operated with a torsion bar across the car and there are a couple of bulkhead changes (Clutch cable and accelerator cable) but if you can weld a bit it should not presnt a huge problem.
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1994 Lotus Esprit S4 - Work in progress...
1980 Porsche 924 S2 DITC Turbo - Original spec
1978 Homo-Sapiens - Tired spec
1953 Landrover S1 - Pensioner Spec

Peter_in_AU · Joined: 29 Jul 2001 Posts: 2743 Location: Sydney, Australia

Are you sure that there is not historic/unique/significant vehicle exclusion clause in the legislation?
_________________
1979 924 (Gone to a better place)
1974 Lotus 7 S4 "Big Valve" Twin-cam (waiting)
1982 924 (As featured on Wikipedia)

Learn to love your multimeter and may the search be with you

ideola · Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Posts: 15548 Location: Spring Lake MI

AFRICA DEE · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:45 pm Post subject: Convering a LHD to a RHD

I hope that there will be a "grandfather clause" but the SA authorities have been known to push through draconian laws ....

In any case, some feedback will be appreciated, because it is not always that easy to cope with a wrong-sider in certain trafficconditions, at toll booths, automated parking garage access/exits etc etc...
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1980 924 N/A Ex-931 Track car: My cash guzzler
2004 996 4S: My Weekend plaything
2012 VW POLO GT: My daily commuter

Peter_in_AU · Joined: 29 Jul 2001 Posts: 2743 Location: Sydney, Australia

When you think about it the differences between LHD and RHD are not that great - that's not to say simple. The cars were designed as LHD so all RHD cars are effectively a factory conversion.

The major things I can think of are brake, clutch and steering.

Brake
The RHD cars have the brake booster mounted the same as the LHD. There is a steel bar that runs across the inside of the cabin from the brake pedal to activate the brake booster. Simple and effective.

Clutch
As I don't have a 931 I don't know what would be involved in reinforcing the firewall on the right side for the clutch.

Steering
The PET does not show LHD and RHD steering racks. Does this mean that it's the same the rack? Don't know.
The metal support structure for the steering column would need to be cut out of the left side and welded to the right side.

Most other things including the switchgear are the same. That's why new drivers of RHD cars acknowledge oncoming Porsches by waving their wipers at them rather than the more traditional light flash

If you have a pdf copy of the PET do a search on "right-hand". You won't get many hits.

I have the dash out of my '79 at the moment so when I can I'll take some photos.
_________________
1979 924 (Gone to a better place)
1974 Lotus 7 S4 "Big Valve" Twin-cam (waiting)
1982 924 (As featured on Wikipedia)

Learn to love your multimeter and may the search be with you

ideola · Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Posts: 15548 Location: Spring Lake MI

And I can take photos of the bare firewall to show you the trouble spots for the clutch, but it won't be until tomorrow afternoon.
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erstwhile owner of just about every 924 variant ever made

Rich H · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:35 pm Post subject:

Peter_in_AU · Joined: 29 Jul 2001 Posts: 2743 Location: Sydney, Australia

Here's some pics of what's under the skin of a RHD car. PM or email me if you want me to email the full size pictures.

The structure holding the steering column is probably the same as the LHD cars so you might be able to just drill out the spot welds on the existing metal work and reweld it on the correct hand side

Here's what the pedals look like:

Here's the bar from the brake pedal to the booster I was talking about:

If you have a look at the PET the RHD brake pedal is mounted in a metal box structure which is not on the LHD cars.

Hope this helps.
_________________
1979 924 (Gone to a better place)
1974 Lotus 7 S4 "Big Valve" Twin-cam (waiting)
1982 924 (As featured on Wikipedia)

Learn to love your multimeter and may the search be with you

AFRICA DEE · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:09 am Post subject: CONVERTING A LHD TO RHD

Thank you guys,

The photos are most helpful and it seems definitely do-able.
_________________
1980 924 N/A Ex-931 Track car: My cash guzzler
2004 996 4S: My Weekend plaything
2012 VW POLO GT: My daily commuter

Pieter · Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 53 Location: South Africa

Ag kak! When is this going to become legislation? between me and my brother, we have 4 LHD and 2 RHD Porsches, so that would be extremely bad news.

Pieter · Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 53 Location: South Africa

I see there is a guy trying to sell a 944, but without rear suspension/engine/transmission, maybe building your 931 drivetrain over will be worthwhile... But thats just a thought. I know that the guy in Pomona drive is going to want both arms and legs for a RHD dash.

AFRICA DEE · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:51 am Post subject:

???? Nuts

Legislation will soon make it impossible for left-hand drive cars in SA to be transferred into another person's name, registered and given certificates of roadworthiness - ultimately leading to the end of the road for left-hand drive vehicles in the country.

According to a report in The Independent on Saturday, the national Department of Transport will soon publish this new amendment which, it claims, has been made because it is not safe to drive such a vehicle on SA roads. Sam Monareng, spokesperson for the department, said current regulations allowed the operation on public roads of left-hand drive vehicles that were first registered or licensed before 2000. However, Monareng said the '15th amendment' to the regulation would be published soon and such vehicles would be exempted from being registered in terms of the National Road Traffic Regulations.
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1980 924 N/A Ex-931 Track car: My cash guzzler
2004 996 4S: My Weekend plaything
2012 VW POLO GT: My daily commuter

bruni · Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 114 Location: South Africa

I think the conversion would be quite difficult, The main problem that I see is the recess for the battery on the LHD vehicle would impinge on the mounting bracket for the steering column and possibly the column itself. The wiring loom would have to be extended, not a small job. Maybe get it registered in Zimbabwe or Namibia

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1982 931
1975 harley sportster

wombat · Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

dont see the battery issue being too big at all. The other thing to consider is that throttle cables are different and you will need an adapter for the oil filter to get it out of the way of the steering colum (or does the 931 have an oil cooler because in this case you may be ok in this regard) cant think of much else.
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1977 924 2.0 Auto