God_Bot

Hey guys, my '87 944 has been sitting for about 9-10 months. Ran fine when parked. I stopped driving it as I wanted to change the belts because they had 50k miles on them.

Well, college took it's toll and the car sat for much longer than originally planned. I've gotten the belts and rollers replaced but now I have a no start issue and had a few questions that I haven't found any satisfactory answers to via searching.


- DME issue, I've seen that the tach is supposed to jump a little. My tach jumps while cranking, is that where I look for the little jump?
I've seen people say that it jumps just a little bit when first trying to start, like when you turn the key to run? Slightly confused here.

- Spark issue, I bought a spark tester and it's not showing any spark, however my question is if a weak battery would be able to give enough power for a spark?

- Battery issue, The battery died. I recharged it, and yet the battery will die almost over night and doesn't hold enough of a charge to crank the engine over for more than 2-3 tries at about 5 seconds each. When the battery has been recharged and hooked back up a slight humming/buzz comes from around the fuel rail. Is this sound normal? I don't remember it from before. Anything else that could drain a good battery that quickly? I tried to hook up the battery from my Monte Carlo but it's too big and my roommate's dead Explorer was parked behind me so I couldn't jump it.

- Fuel issue, I tried the DME jump as described on Clarks Garage, however I was unable to hear any sort of fuel pump activity. The fuel also did not have any additives added to it for long term inactivity. How do I go about seeing if something is clogged? I pulled off the return line on the fuel rail and it the fuel that came out still smelled normal.


I'm hoping to be able to try jumping it this weekend to check off the battery as an issue and retest for spark while jumping. I also plan on tracking down a fuel pressure gauge to test that. I realize that I have probably missed many things, I'm just more used to working on old domestic pickups, sport quads, and my '06 Monte Carlo. This Porsche engine is a little different than what I'm used to.

Thanks,
Garrett

racer

You need 3 things.. Air, Spark and Fuel.

How old is the battery to begin with? It might be worth the money to replace it if age is unknown or in question simply to have a baseline and, as you've mentioned, it doesn't seem to hold a charge.

Then check coil for spark.

Then check for fuel.

teamcrossworks

You need a new battery... If the battery is not supplying enough voltage the starter will hog it from the fuel pump and even though the engine is cranking...she will no start. IMHO

misnblu

Fact.
The Bosch injection system has a certain voltage requirement so if the volts are too low, they'll never fire.
So try replacing the battery and see what happens once you try to crank it up with some good volts.
Good luck.

God_Bot

Thanks guys, I do not know the age of the battery. The only thing I know about it is that it is not the original, but it is old enough for the stickers on top to be pealing off.

Edit: I got the car started, jumping did the trick so a new batter is in the works. Apparently the A/C and alternator belts are pretty much shot as they're dry rotted enough to be cracked and cause one helluva squeal. Those too shall be changed soon.

Thanks again!