Nathan, (nathan944) just got his new 944s yesterday, a really nice one, with a few PO issues of course...
He was told by the PO that he was able to jumper it to get it to start, well, the mech. They seemed to think it was something wrong in the fuse box. THey took it all apart, so we put it all back together, and hooked up a bew DME relay, no go!
SO then we jumpered the DME Relay, 30-- 87, 87b could hear the fuel pump running, excellent! But still no start!
Then obviously we moved on to spark...
and thus lies the problem
We are not getting spark! First we just pulled the first plug, tried that, no spark, then we checked the coil, with a circut tester it seems to be working, (and when later swapped with a good one, it must be good)
but, when you hook a spark plug wire up the coil and crank it, there is no pulse... weird

But the cap and rotor look quite worn, doubt that could cause this... tell me if i'm wrong!

THEN! looked at the speed/reference sensor that is right there, The wiring is a little torn up on it, close to the plug, so I take it apart and do a quick fix on it. Still need to test if it is working properly with a voltmeter. But still no start or spark.

THen we realized, this car has an alarm, and sure enough, in the fuse box there is a relay labled alarm or soemthing that is possibly missing. It is one of the white seperate connectors. Would this do anyhting??, I am an early car man!

So about 1:30 last night I finally called it quits and went home got to sleep, I love/hate thsi kind of stuff. Must be the engineer in me. Thanks for any help in advance!

 

Thanks for posting that Carl, I was too tired to type all that out last night.

The mechanic & the PO told me that the fuse box had a "couple of fried runs", now I dont know how that is possible because they are copper electrodes and I dont know how you could fry that (btw fuse boxes in these cars suck)... But i quickly noticed that some stuff on the int was not working. No headlights, no power windows (pass side rolls down only, not back up..damn) no door locks etc.etc. I am going to pick up a new fuse box and try that but does anyone think that because of these freeky electrical problems it might be an indicator that I have other problems in the fuse panel area causing a no spark?

What we have ruled out so far:
fuel pump
DME/relay
coil
plugs/wires/dist cap/rotor
flywheel sensor

Also I want to thank Macfreak007 for helping me out last night, we will get it eventually.

 

OK I may be getting somewhere. There is a sensor on the back of the cam gear housing, I need to know what this is, how to check/replace it (it looks like the valve cover has to come off) and where to find one. This would make perfect sense because spack is not getting past the distributor cap.

 

bump

 

Nathan,
Give me a call. I have had a lot of experience lately on the S cars. I have been able to get 2 of them running. I think Carl has my number, and I will pm it to you. You have to a "S" dme for the car. If you are trying to start it with a 8V dme, it won't happen.

 

The 944S from 87-88 have an impulse sender and a top dead center sender at the top left bell housing location whereas the 944NA and turbo have flywheel speed and reference sensors.

The item in question at the rear of the cam drive gear cover is a hall sender and comes with the short pigtail wire harness (check for fraying/short)- prt# 944 606 170 01 that is only used on the 16V 2.5 and the 32V 928 engines, and quite possibly the later S2 and 968. This part reads camshaft position and allows for sequential fuel injection delivery iirc. The engine will run without it, although sluggish...I could be wrong on that though.

Lastly, inside the engine bay, behind the left headlight door stop bracket, mounted on the metalwork of the innerfender part of the chassis is an ignition module that should only be shared with the 928 32V, also the 3.0 liter S2 and 968 (never checked those).
As I understand, it moves the injector drivers normally found *inside* the 8V car's DME's to this location for cooling purposes....again, just from memory...

If either you or someone you know close by collects the Porsche magazine 'Excellence', Jim Pasha did a nice article about the 944S specific DME systems called 'The brain behind the brawn' if memory serves.....

LOL, you'd swear I have a "memory complex".......<bg>

I drove one of these cars (87) for 10 years (my first Porsche) after assembling the engine from boxes of parts 12 years ago so my memory is sorta fuzzy....My son (87_944S) now enjoys the car. I also resurrected an 88S from an ex-rennlister several years ago and resold it....

Great car....highly underestimated imo..

Terry S.

 

Id bitch a fit if its a sensor. Those damn sensors killed my black car for a month.

 

BTW- Nathan I don't recall if the fuse panel (I can check for you) has a relay labeled "alarm" but if you're referring to a factory relay position and you're unfamiliar with the later cars there should be a lock cylinder right behind the drivers door on the front of the driver's quarter panel.
This only interupts the circuit to the fuel pump iirc but I can check the schematic....

Lastly, Todd is correct that the 87-88 944S DME is needed for that engine to run.
The prt# on the label on the DME should end in AV...

Terry S.

 

Well I verified most everything is working properly that I can tell. Now I just have to wait for the new fuse block and hopefully she will start right up.

 

cool, awesome Nathan, what all did you do?
when is the fuse box coming? I can't wait to hear this baby run, I get my car back on tuesday!

 

I will be sending it out tomorrow morning Fed-Ex. Got it boxed up ready to go. You guys might want to find someone close to you that has a S, and try Nathan's DME in it. I think I have a extra ingition control module somewhere. If I do....I will get it to you. I think after you get the fuse panel straight, and make sure the ingition relays are good, if it still dosen't start, need to try the module next.

 

hmmm, okay, good advice todd, I will try to come up with a local S owner, although we don't really have a very strong local PCA, so it makes it pretty hard. Your right though that would help. You think that it could be DME related?

 

I can only hope it is the fuse block. I also have new cap/coil/rotor on the way from worldpak for good measure....


Also today Todd and myself had a very lengthy phone conversation trying to figure out what is up with this car. Todd is like telephone technical support for porsches. Thnaks for your time and patience man.