No Spark

[mysocal911]

Originally Posted by ant7

Hi Wazzz,
All three had their solder removed, and re-soldered as in the "New Solder" pick.
However, although that pin looks to be bad in the pick, its just a trick of the light, because with the naked eye, it looked fine!

It's always best to bend the pins over before re-soldering, as shown in post #19.

[wazzz]

Originally Posted by ant7

Hi Wazzz,
All three had their solder removed, and re-soldered as in the "New Solder" pick.
However, although that pin looks to be bad in the pick, its just a trick of the light, because with the naked eye, it looked fine!

I know you did reflow them. I was just pointing this one as a possible culprit.

By the way, I can see part of a tube amp diagram on your desk, so you must know what you're doing.

[mysocal911]

Have you called them?

[ant7]

Hi Wazzz,
No worries, Very observant of you, I am indeed an audio technician, I deal mainly with Valve/Tube equipment, mostly for Musicians these days!

Originally Posted by wazzz

I know you did reflow them. I was just pointing this one as a possible culprit.

By the way, I can see part of a tube amp diagram on your desk, so you must know what you're doing.

[ant7]

Hi Dave,
In answer to your question, Why would I ?
I think Steve did actually comment earlier on, so he's obviously been following the thread, if he had any reservations of this issue being related to the chip, surely he would have said so ?

Originally Posted by mysocal911

Have you called them?

[mysocal911]

Originally Posted by ant7

Hi Dave,
In answer to your question, Why would I ?
I think Steve did actually comment earlier on, so he's obviously been following the thread, if he had any reservations of this issue being related to the chip, surely he would have said so ?

Help, e.g. repair suggestions or ideas about the failure?

[wazzz]

Originally Posted by ant7

Hi Wazzz,
No worries, Very observant of you, I am indeed an audio technician, I deal mainly with Valve/Tube equipment, mostly for Musicians these days!

Interesting, I should show you my take of a small guitar tube amp I built a few years back from a schematic I found on the web. Only 2 or 3 watts but a killer amp.

[ant7]

Indeed, Although I have to warn you I may have a few of my own!

Originally Posted by wazzz

Interesting, I should show you my take of a small guitar tube amp I built a few years back from a schematic I found on the web. Only 2 or 3 watts but a killer amp.

[ant7]

If anyone including yourself had indicated that it may be something to do with it, of course I would, so in your opinion; do you think its related ? I should indicate that the chip has been on the car for around 10 years now, so not a recent adition.

Originally Posted by mysocal911

Help, e.g. repair suggestions or ideas about the failure?

[pmax]

Pic's blurry so hard to tell but what's the discoloration ?

[dkirk]

Several years ago I had a no-start situation with my '88. Fortunately it occurred in my garage. The DME failed open circuit at the conductor path shown in the photo. Sent to Steve Wong for repair...quick turn-around and very fair price.

[ant7]

Cheers Dave,
Hopefully Steve will contribute further to this thread when he has anything to add.
Ant.

Originally Posted by dkirk

Several years ago I had a no-start situation with my '88. Fortunately it occurred in my garage. The DME failed open circuit at the conductor path shown in the photo. Sent to Steve Wong for repair...quick turn-around and very fair price.

[ant7]

Hi All,.
Spent some time over the last day or two going through a few things like checking and re-gapping the flywheel senders, etc.

Quick update, left the car until early this afternoon before trying to start it, turned the key and it fired straight up from cold, great I thought, although I noticed that it seemed flat when you tried taking it above idle, but eventually it did seem to respond normally, well with the car standing still anyway, took it out for a spin and it was obvious as soon as I wend out the gate that something wasn't right, put your foot down, and it would hesitate, then it would cut in and pull ok for a split second then back to flat and bucking as soon as you tried to give it any beans, so, not sure what the heck is going on with it now, I guess some more checks are in order, However; for now I do seem to have gotten somewhere as it seems to start ok every time.

Anyway, in the meantime; if you have any thoughts...

[ant7]

Had another look at the car over the last few days, and long story short, the vacuum pipe going to the fuel pressure regulator was sucking air, which was obviously affecting the fuel pressure, took the car out today, and all is well again, so just a heads up, check your vacuum pipes first if you get a similar issue.
Ant.

[ant7]

Well, back to no start again, long story short; changed the ECU for one that was kindly lent to me, and the car fired straight up, and ran fine, so,,, any of you ECU wizards out there who can point me in the right direction for why this might be happening to my original ECU, your thoughts would be most welcome.

[Schulisco]

Originally Posted by ant7

Well, back to no start again, long story short; changed the ECU for one that was kindly lent to me, and the car fired straight up, and ran fine, so,,, any of you ECU wizards out there who can point me in the right direction for why this might be happening to my original ECU, your thoughts would be most welcome.

https://www.google.com/search?q=motronic+porsche+ecu+repair+service+uk

[ischmitz]

FW decoder could be damaged. Your DME needs to be repaired.

[ant7]

After spending a bit time searching out ECU repairs in the UK, and speaking with a few, I decided it may be best to send it off to be checked, however; before packing it, I decided to plug it back into the car just for the hell of it, and.... the car fired right up, and ran fine!
I am now beginning to suspect there may be something odd going on in the large ECU plug itself, so for now, I am going to hold off sending the ECU off until I have time to look at the plug and do some further testing etc.
Ant.

[Schulisco]

Broken soldering joints...not uncommon on 40years old units...but when you diy you should definitely know what you do. Otherwise take it to an experienced electronics guy...in the end after the season I would let it overhaul either. The condensators will also fail over the decades...

[ischmitz]

Classic symptoms of deteriorating solder joints. It works fine for days and then out of the blue shuts down leaving you stranded.

The high currents in the ignition final drive causes electro migration in the micro cracks and that weakens them over time. The spark becomes weak and eventually leads to complete failure. Sometimes you can hit the box hard and it’ll come back before failing again.