'85 911 Stalled and Won't Start

[whitey1983]

Hi everyone,

Started her up as usual (street parked in NYC for the night)...put it in first to pull forward, then as I was reversing it felt like the car just stalled out. Tried to restart 2 times and nothing. Battery works - ac, radio, etc all fine other than the stereo head reset back to factory settings. Car sort of pops up and goes back a little upon turning the ignition. The fuse box cover was off when I opened the trunk.

Any ideas what the issue(s) might be?

Thanks,

Ron

[Norm Faustino]

What do you mean by "goes back a little"? See if the fuses are all good and then try some starter fluid down the air box snorkel while holding the gas pedal down opening the throttle plate. (Two person deal)

[The cap'n]

The FIRST thing I would do is replace the DME relay. When I had my shop, EVERY customer with a DME equipped car had a spare relay in the glovebox. The relay is located under the driver's seat next to the DME control unit.

The Cap'n

After re-reading the thread, I am editing this post. It wasn't clear to me that the "failure to start" issue was actually a "failure to crank" issue. See my later post with a discussion of battery charging.

[whitey1983]

I got it to start, and with the clutch depressed it stayed around 1100 rpm. when i gradually released the clutch, the rpm's dropped until it died again. is there a chance the battery is drained? put a new head unit in 2 weeks ago and was messing around with it on Monday (setting siriusxm presents and what not). i didn't have the engine on... going to try and jump it to see if that resolves the issue.

have driven roughly 2k miles this month without any issues. had an inspection before the cross country trip and there weren't any red flags.

thanks for your input.

[David_B]

Well it is hard to know if it is the same issue I am working on, but basicly my car started running rough and would die if I did not give it tons of gas and clutch to start her. Then the car died all together and would not start. It actually ended up being two seperate issues, but both took no tools and just bits of wire to test. In short the Cylinder head temperature sensor went causing the car to run like crap and then the DME relay packed it in. I did a little post with pictures in regards to how I tested things.
Rough Idle to No Start... Fixed?
If know one can figure out the issue, keep searching the forum like I did until you find a post with a simular issue. Once you know the issue you can search for a detailed post on how to fix it.

[cabmandone]

That sounds exactly like what was happening to my car when I bumped the wire off for the cylinder head temp sensor. It would start, idle high and when you let out on the clutch it would bog down and stall out. I've seen posts that stated the single wire sensors were prone to failure. I'm not sure how or why but everyone seems to say if you have a single you should replace it.

If you suspect the battery and can get it to start and idle, put a volt meter on it and see if your alternator is charging. I had no problem at idle when I bumped my CHT wire.

[whitey1983]

turned out to be the alternator...will provide more detail tomorrow.
living in the city without a personal garage, i had the targa towed up to rennwerke. spoke briefly with cheech a little bit ago and will get the full rundown tomorrow before he and his team make the necessary repairs

[DRACO A5OG]

Been there done that :-/