Car won't start...

[schmidter91]

1982 Porsche 911SC

74,000 miles

After about an hour of driving, I fuel up and when I go to start the car: nothing. All the instruments come to life, the fuel pump buzzes, and lights go on, but the starter won't click or engage. I tried starting it for about thirty minutes, and even attempted to push start her, but that did not work either.

I have experienced this problem before, but the car always starts within a minute or two.

Ideas?

[dimeified]

check the solenoid connection on the starter. it may be pretty corroded. Somewhere in the starter loop there is probably an intermittent connection. Check the ground connections on the intake runner, and the ground strap to the transmission, , and the alternator connections (unlikely). Aternatively if you do a search im sure there are a million threads like this. Think about it, 25+ years the 911 has been on the road, im sure that whatever is happening to you has already happened to plenty of other people and it is most likely documented.

[mike_dunn]

Same thing happens to me sometimes. I have to whack the starter solenoid with a hammer. I've yet to replace the starter so I carry a hammer in the toolkit.

[tshih]

Since the starter doesn't turn over "not even a click", one would just get a rebuilt starter and swap the old one out. However, the fact that you can't get the car to be jump started is contrary to just having starter solenoid issues. Starting occurs when there is spark and fuel appropriately metered out. Your CIS system may be gummed up by the ethanol based fuels today or rusty from the corrosion in the lines and fuel distributor. Also one should check for proper fuel delivery and fuel pressure by removing the air filter and reaching inside the airbox and lift the lever under the plate (3" diameter plate which has an adjustment for the resting gap.)
Hopefully you would have updated your air-box with the toilet bowl pop off valve to protect against blowing up the airbox due to backfire from incorrect fuel air mixture/timing.

[911-GuardsRed]

Could be all the teeth on the starter are finally grinded...

[JohnJL]

You'd hear the starter spin if that was the case.

[schmidter91]

Thanks for the help guys.

I went back to retrieve that car four hours later, armed with a trailer, she started right up. One odd thing was that the memory functions on the radio were reset.

Could this be a bad battery? I suppose tracing electrical connections will be next.

[Mattlock18]

I had a similar problem on my 83sc last year. It would start on occassion and then other times just wouldn't. The one difference I had from you is that I could always get it to start via push start. Using jumper cables didn't help the problem very often. After I replaced the ground strap, battery, and removed my alarm thinking it might be draining the battery, it turned out to be a faulty solenoid on the starter. Replaced the starter and it has started up every time since then.