Alpine951

I just got home from work, pulled in the driveway, turned off the car and locked the door. i left it in gear. I start walking away and it starts cranking. It bumped up against my wifes car and pushed it into the garage door before I unlocked the door. I pulled off the positive cable on the battery. WTF. I need some help here. What would cause this. Car is an 86 951 with 38k miles. It ran fine on the way home. no problems. It was very hot here today in Massachusetts.

Water944t

Only 38k?

Maybe she just wants to be able to run and play some more.

But seriously, thats a scary problem, dont leave the car in gear. Maybe a short in the starter wiring?


<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

adrial

Well, the starter wiring is pretty straightforward...

There's 2 main wires that go to the starter, one that tells the starter to go (the ignition on wire i call it) and another that supplies the juice (comes straight from the battery).

Get under the car and make sure these 2 wires aren't touching...the starter is the black thing at the rear of the engine...the little black thing hanging off it is the starter solenoid...its one assembly.

If those 2 aren't touching...then its possible your ignition switch has gone crazy. I kind of doubt that one though.

There is a white 2 pin connector by the brake booster, the thicker red wire with the black stripe is the one that goes to the ignition on. From there it goes to the ignition switch, you can pull off the harness that goes onto the ignition switch from behind the dash...nothing needs to be removed to get to it. I would test all the wiring with a multimeter (test for resistance, but I think more importantly test for voltage...at which point in the wiring does the ignition on get 12 volts when it shouldn't be getting it).

If the wiring checks out OK, maybe the starter/starter solenoid have gone crazy and need to be replaced?

It's a pretty simple system I've discovered in my little no start problem.

Alpine951

The fact that it started after I turned off the key makes me wonder if it might be something wrong in the ignition switch because woudn't I have noticed if the starter was crannking while I was driving, like alot of noise. I tried the key back and forth in the switch but no luck.

Perry 951

Check them wires! This is how my fire started!

You may need to split open the rear loomb and look if the smaller red wires that run to the fuse box are shorting.

A bad ignition could also be suspect.

adrial

An ignition switch is $38.20 from Paragon (priced it a few days ago while diagnosing my problem...I still think I may need it).

The wheel and the little plastic cover over that area has to come off...given that you have no airbag I dont think its a very big deal. I THINK that is all that has to come off, I should say.

I believe you'll have to have the new ignition switch re-keyed if you want to use the same key though?? (again not sure)

Alpine951

The demons have fled from my car.

I jacked it up tonight and crawled under. The smaller wire coming on to the starter solenoid was snug up against the big heavy wire on the starter. i took the Solenoid wire off it the wasn't frayed at all. i put it back on and tightened it making sure it was not close at all. All fixed. Next time i bleed the clutch and brakes, like I did 2 weeks ago, I will make sure the wires are not so close when I put the starter back on. <img src="graemlins/c.gif" border="0" alt="[ouch]" />


John