930 won't start after long drive

[j930]

Last week i had the car in the shop for a valve adjustment and had them look at the tranny as i thought it was a little to hard going into first.

took the car on 3 hour ride up into the mountains out here in AZ and came back this afternoon. car runs great. while in the shop they discovered a fuel head issue and Brian @ Rarely L8 promptly took care of it.

so this afternoon on the way home the windows would not roll down. pulled over and found that the fuse had blown. no biggie just replaced it.

got home and parked outside to unload the bags. got back in to put the car in the garage and it won't start. i just get a click. i pulled the wires off the fuel head to make the pumps were running and i can hear both of them. i swapped out the relay in the rear and still nothing. i am thinking starter? or maybe there is a wire loose somewhere just a coincidence that fuse blew on the windows? any thoughts are greatly appreciated?

[JFairman]

I've experienced things like that in other cars and it was a corroded battery cable.

Can't see the powdery corrosion thats killing the connection until you remove the cables, clean them, and put vasaline, grease, or whatever on them to resist corrosion.

..but you never can tell until you live with the car for a while with all the old relays and alarm system(s) in these cars.

[Miguel Antonett]

Does it crank at all - starter/battery...?

or

It turns w/o firing up - gas/spark...?

[IMR-Merlin]

I have seen bad starters do this also. Only does it when hot.

But start with the usual stuff like the battery cables, ground connections, etc...

[j930]

won't even turn over, just a click, i am going to try and start her again this morning

[j930]

so it started right up? yesterday i drove it about 3 hours from eastern AZ down to phoenix. it was 100 yesterday so it was good and hot. should i look at the starter, the solenoid. i would not think a relay would be the cause.

[Ronnie's.930]

Some of this has been already mentioned but you should check the following:

- battery(load test) and all connections/cables/grounds

- starter & solenoid (load test) and all starter wires

- possibly ignition switch

[einsteiger]

I have no practical input to this situation, but being a betting man, I'll say the starter is the cuplprit.

[roger's 2937]

Does your car have a hi-torque starter? We just had that happen to a friend of mine so installed a stock starter and solved the problem. Only did it when the car was hot-when it cooled down a bit it started right up with the hitorque starter-also here in Arizona at 110 deg..

[herman maire]

Just a question. How does disconnecting the connectors on the fuel head make the pumps run?

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by einsteiger

I have no practical input to this situation, but being a betting man, I'll say the starter is the cuplprit.

Easy money... Mine did the same, could hear the relay but nothing else happened except that you could see the battery voltage going down.

Lift her up, my buddy hold the key on start and I hit the starer with a 2x4 and she started right up.

[mark houghton]

I'll place my bets on the solenoid. It is, after all, nothing but a big relay that does two things (1) moves a slider gear and therefore engages the starter with the flywheel ring gear and (2) closes the electrical circuit to the starter motor. Solenoids can merrily "actuate" but fail to make good contact to complete the circuit to the motor; thus, click-click, but no motor running. Or, in the case of a weak solenoid, it won't move far enough for the gears to mesh completely, causing a nasty grinding noise (eating up the flywheel ring gear) when the starter motor turns over.

One can easily test the starter motor itself independent of the solenoid. Just bypass/short direct to the starter....it should run but not engage with the flywheel.

[j930]

solenoid will be ordered today. i will let you know what we find

[JFairman]

Just curious if you've removed the battery cables from the battery posts and cleaned them.
75% of the time your symptoms are just that: corroded battery cables along the inside diameter where you can't see the corrosion while they are on the battery posts. I've seen it many times when I worked as a mechanic 25 years ago.

What happens is with oxygen and humidity a white powdery corrosion builds up in between the battery cable and the post and enough current can still get through to turn on the headlights or anything else in the car accept for the one thing that rerally draws alot of amperage: the starter motor.
The click you hear is the starter solenoid being activated and slamming the starter gear into the flywheel ring gear at the same time the starter solenoids internal electrical contacts come together and allow high amperage 12 volts to go to the starter motor and run it.
It's also possible those 2 electrical contacts inside the starter solenoid are used up and not making good contact anymore.

You can sometimes take apart the starter solenoid and clean the two contacts if they are still good and then clean and lube the starter solenoid with dry graphite powder.

Sometimes just loosening the battery post and twisting it back and forth a few times without removing it will break the corrosion up enough to make contact for a little while ifit was the problem. If it's not the battery terminals next bet is probably the starter solenoid or the heavy gauge cable from the battery and alternator to the starter solenoid is loose or making a bad connection.

[1986911]

I agree with JFairman, I had the same issue on my 86. The battery looked perfect, I cleaned off the terminals and posts, sanded them and snugged them down tight. Problem disappeared. Realized it was the terminals because once I would try to move the terminals the car would start right up.

[j930]

well i can clean those up easy enough, they actually look good. but i guess i can grab the current off the cables and not the post to see what she is putting out. the shop next to my office is a alternator/starter repair shop so i will probably just pull it off and have him go throughout it. it looks pretty easy to get off. the coifing thing to me is that it would not start last night but it did this morning and i touched nothing in between?

[timc]

put car in neutral, jack up pass side rear corner, place jack stand, turn key on, use screwdriver to jump the solenoid. MAKE SURE CAR IS IN NEUTRAL. done this many times in 911's over the years to test the solenoid. If starter spins, you have a problem with the starter/solenoid. If not more then likely battery or bad connections.

[mark houghton]

Basic stuff, applies to all makes of cars. Starters and solenoids are.....well, just starters and solenoids. They work in prescribed fashions. With that said, I sure hope it's just dirty battery or ground connections. Save you some $$$.

I once took my old Toyota truck's solenoid apart to "rebuild" the internal contacts that Mr. Fairman elluded to. Just went down to the local Ace Hardware for convenience, bought a two dollar heavy duty copper battery lug, cut/hammered it into shape and used the pieces to replace the factory stuff that went south after 150,000 miles. And now, 50K later, it's still working.

Of course that fits me to a T, since I'm a cheap DIY fockker.

[j930]

nothing on the battery, not a bit of corrosion. i just replaced it last year and scrubbed everything really good. will try and check the starter tomorrow. will try the screw driver trick. but i think i will get the whole rear end of the ground. no need to flatten myself! i wish i had a neighbor with a car lift!

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by j930

... i wish i had a neighbor with a car lift!

Driver up up


Best buy... after the car