macreel

123quattro... welcome.

Are battery clamps shiney clean ? Is negative strap
grounded to a clean, bright stud at rear hatch ?

Good contact at Starter ?


G'luck.

Jim bailey - 928 International

If an automatic you have a neutral safety switch. Also the electric part of the ignition switch often fails sending no signal to the starter solenoid.

85fortheDrive

John:

Welcome to the Rennlist board. Please consider registering - it will easily be the best $17 you spend on your Porsche. Some great MI 928'ers here.

Daniel Dudley

Check your ignition switch. Try pushing the key in hard and twisting up. This sometimes works on a tired switch.

Charley B

Are you getting any indication the key is making contact? Dash lights dim? Clicking sound? Have you tried a jump start?

danglerb

Except don't do the jump start part, maybe just make sure battery has a full charge and connections are clean.

Charley B

Jump starting will tell you which direction to look for your problem. If it starts fine with a jump you have just narrowed the problem down to a small area of possibilities.

AO

Congrats on the acquisition.

We have a realy stong Detroit Metro 928 group. We get together on the 2nd Thursday of each month in Royal Oak for beer and burgers. Watch here for details or look it up on the search function. Also, if you send me your email, I'll put you on the email distribution list.

123quattro

I had a spare Optima laying around that I put in the car. It's fully charged. I don't think the problem is battery related. The windows, sunroof, stereo, and cluster all work to some degree. The fuel pump usually cycles when the key is first rotated, but not always. I can hear a relay clicking down on the passenger floorboard, but that's about it when the key is cycled to the start position. This car has an alarm installed on it. I'm not sure if it works, or if it would prevent cranking. Someone loved this car about 15 years ago and spent a lot of money on it then. I don't think they spent a dime on it since.

I bought it with an advertised a bad clutch, passenger door, and fender. The clutch seems to be ok, but rather it just has a hydraulics issue. Everything else was supposed to work. However, that seems to not be the case.

I'm sure I'll learn a lot getting this thing to run.

AO

The first thing to do is disable the aftermarket alarm - they seem to cause more problem than help.

WallyP

If you hear a relay click in the Central Electric Panel (under the passenger's toe board) when you turn the key, this indicates that the ignition switch is probably working, and since the five-speed cars have no start relay, the next most likely problem is corrosion in the connectors on the small wire that runs from the jumper bar in the start relay socket on to the starter solenoid, or dirty battery or ground connections. Don't forget the main chassis/engine ground strap on the bottom right of the engine.

If it is convenient for you to do so, you can get under the car and jumper from the post where the small yellow wire is attached, to the main battery connection next to it. Make CERTAIN that the transmission is in neutral - there is no safety switch!

If the starter works, the battery and ground connections are probably OK. Find the jump start terminal on the right front fender. (It is safe to jump start the car with a 12 volt battery - it is not safe to use a higher-voltage power supply, battery charger jump start, etc.) Next to the terminal is a 14-pole connector. It is not unusual for this connector to corrode due to water entering at the fender, especially if the plastic box over the connectors is missing.

Carefully clean the connector. Be careful - the wires will spring out of the connector when you take it apart if you aren't very careful, and it is a pain to get them all back in the correct positions.

You can use a test light or meter (the light is better) to see if there is 12 vdc on the yellow wire when you turn the ignition switch to the start position. If there is, but the starter doesn't work, but does work when you jumper the yellow wire to the battery wire at the starter solenoid, the problem may be a corroded wire in the harness between the connector and the solenoid.

In any case, the goal is to find where the 12 vdc disappears between the ignition switch and the solenoid.

If the starter doesn't work when you jumper the yellow wire to the battery cable at the solenoid, you will need to take the starter off and check the solenoid and the brushes. Disconnect the battery ground strap first!

H2

Once you get it running like you want...you'll be a pretty good mechanic/troubleshooter and probably will know as much or more than most mechanics in your area. Of course, when you've made this investment in time and learning, you're hooked and you have to keep the car because you're about the only person around you can trust to work on it. The first time you fix something, it takes longer. It gets better...to the point you can eventually do some things in the dark.

Do a search for all of Wally Plumley's posts and you'll learn more about this car than you'll get from the workshop manuals. However, the WSM is helpful, it's just that Wally explains it so it makes sense. There's a lot of info on about every topic in the various archives scattered around.

Harvey

123quattro

Thanks Wally. That's really useful info for me! I'm pretty handy with cars, just not up to speed on the particulars of these things. Here's a couple pics in case someone is interested.

Mike Frye

Nice car.

Ouch!, What happened to that door?

You'll have her chewing up the pavement in no time.

123quattro

The car was backed into by a "utility trailer". It took out the front fender as well. It didn't put a mark on the shell though. In reality, it was more like it was backed through. The door shell got pushed in far enough that the door panel was ripped off the inside of the door.