Automatic 1977 924 ; warning light

Raa · 04-24-2011, 02:56 PM

Hi i am restarting my porsche for the summer season, and it idles very slow, then stalls after a few minutes. The warning light just below the oil warning light, which looks like a wheel goes on and i have to boost my car if i don't start it for a few hours. What is that WHEEL warning light?
Thank you.
Raa

924RACR · 04-25-2011, 04:54 AM

It can mean the handbrake is on, but in your case, it clearly is showing that the battery is discharging. Either alternator or battery are dead... did you charge the battery fully overnight?

Raa · 04-25-2011, 08:38 AM

ok, i'm working on it now. the hand brake was on. i will take it off and see if that light is still on. thank you.

Raa · 04-25-2011, 06:35 PM

thank you RACR. That light is for the hand-brake. Even if i let the car run on idle for 30 minutes, the battery doesn't re-charge, so i will have a battery & alternator test done. i'm pretty sure it's the alternator.
Can you give me hints on how to perform an ignition timing. [924 . 1977 . automatic . 2.0 liter . no turbo] It is idling at 1000 rpm, but the engine is turning very slow, nearly to the point of stalling.
I have another 924, 1980, 5 speed, no turbo, 2.0 liter. i will talk about it another time. They are both in pretty good shape.
Take care for now.
Raa

924RACR · 04-26-2011, 05:47 AM

Cheers... you may want to check in on 924board.org... anyway, the stock timing for that car sucks - I should know, my first was a 77.5 auto!

The best timing marks are to be found on the flywheel, under the coil visible through a window. If you have an adjustable timing light, you can change the advance; otherwise, it's a bit tough to deviate from stock. Plus you'll want to be sure your combustion chambers are relatively clean, and good octane gas; then you can run up to 6 deg advance at idle, makes much more power.

With clean combustion chambers (mine had a lot of junk in there when I went to do a headgasket), I was able to run that much timing with 87 octane; just not enough CR to worry. If there's a lot of junk in there, you may have some concern; 4 deg or so may be safer... but will still run much better than stock.

Oh, yeah, I seem to recall that 6 deg is about with the stock timing mark (or maybe the zero?) at the top of the timing window.

Timing is set with all vacuum lines to the distributor disconnected and plugged.

Idle mixture may be in need of tweaking too - we go generally for best throttle response, but only after timing is set...