Jersey928Kid

How did you remove the sway bar? When I am under there I feel like I am going to take out something load bearing and be crushed... lol! From what I saw the sway bar has 6 bolts to come completely off, do those all need to come off to get it out of the way? Also, when I was near the starter I saw a red plug which I removed and nothing came out... seams pretty useless... what is it?

FlyingDog

If you haven't tried the 14-pin jump yet, do that. It will run battery (or close to it) voltage directly from the jump start post to the starter. If it works then, you have a wiring problem not a starter problem.

SharkSkin

The sway bar may not even need to come off to get the starter out. If it's really in the way, try just loosening the 4 bolts on the two swaybar mounts closest to the starter.

That red cap was probably from the steering rack. There is a centering bolt that goes in that hole while doing an alignment... and the cap is there to prevent road gunge from making its way into your $teering rack... nuff said.

Jersey928Kid

I am kind of scared to give the starter power while I am under the car with my 4 wimpy jack stands holding it up! And thanks shark skin you are a guru I swear... and I love your site, I was wondering if you could post more pics of your hatchlock repair. Also for the contact cleaner, 65 is pretty expencive, do you know any lesser brand with close performance?

SharkSkin

Those are all the pics I have...

Guru? I dunno about that. Glad I could help though.

BTW, Stabilant is not a contact cleaner. It should be applied to clean contacts. AFAIK, nothing else does what it does.You need something else to do the actual cleaning... in my case it was various abrasives and elbow grease. You can Google "Stabilant" and find better prices.

FlyingDog

Just stand next to the car with it in neutral. You don't have to be under it. All you have to see is if it will kick the engine over.

Jersey928Kid

So I was continuing working today and I noticed in the rear bumper there was a cable that was open, coming out of it were two round connectors with a pin and a pin recepticle in each, the wires were coated tan and white. What are these?

Also next to the starter there is another cylinder with a metallic hose coming in the side of it and going up behind the starter. What is it and is it safe to remove or am I going to get squirted?

mulik51

About contact cleaner: I was in PapBoys(getting a pulley puller) and saw contact cleaner, and contact grease-sealer. Each cost about 14$. I don't remember the name, but they are in red cans.
About the starter: I cannot say anything in particular, but I had a starter problem on my other car. The only way to solve it is to buy a multimeter in Walmart and measure the voltage and resistance on all places you can in "starter" electrical chain.

Klim

sublimate

That's your clutch. Sure it's safe to remove, but you'll probably want to put it back at some point. If you take off the hose clutch fluid (brake fluid actually) will come out and you'll need to bleed the clutch after you put it back together. If you unbolt the clutch but leave the line connected then you won't have to bleed it (but still not a bad idea).

WICruiser

To lower the sway bar you can remove the 4 bolts that hold the clamps that go around the bar on either side (not at the ends). The bar can move down away from the starter area to make it easier to get the starter out and back in. The sway bar does not have load on it when the car is basically level side to side. The only time there is load on it is when one fornt wheel is trying to go up when the other side is not. It basically helps keep both front tires on the ground.

Thaddeus

I would really check to see you've got current. Clik-clik-clik says low battery, not bad starter, to me.

Start by cleaning all the contacts you can find and making sure you're battery is supplying decent power.

FlyingDog

Unless I missed an update somewhere, I don't think he's getting click-click-click. When my voltage is low (and this was the same for all the non-starting cars I saw at SITM) the starter does nothing. No clicks or other noises. The only thing that happens is the voltage guage drops and the dash lights dim.

Niels Jørgensen

My starter freaked last year and suddenly failed to engage the engine... There's a gap between the starter and the engine where you can see the cog - I managed to pry it back with a screwdriver and have had no problems since.

Also, it takes a lot of juice to start a 928 - multiple failed attempts can easily drain the battery to a point where it has power to run accessories, but not enough to start the car. I found out the hard way: Do a full re-charge of the battery or get a new replacement of similar rating, or you will be chasing ghosts!

mulik51

Hey.
As I noted above I had starting problem with my Ford Bronco II for past 6 months(it is not 928 but still...). I checked every contact in the "starter"chain and couldn't find anything wrong. But the starter made the click-click noise and didn't turn over. After 6 months of stupid chasing, I found the problem: the positive wire terminal on the battery was corroded on the inside. I cleaned it and tightened it and everything worked. Yeah, in this 6 months I changed 4 batterys, 1 alternator, 2 voltage regulators, 3 starter solenoids.
So, the moral of the story is that before changing some expensinve part, check all the wireing THOUROUGHLY.

Klim

Jersey928Kid

I have found this company CAIG that makes some high quality contact cleaner and insulator (from reviews I have read) has anyone used this to solve an electrical problem?