Yet another No-start...

[gacook]

Morning gents and ladies.

My '87 944 won't start, and I seek advice from the brain trust.

Car worked beautifully on Friday; started right up as it usually does. Yesterday morning, got in and it wouldn't crank. Didn't have time to mess with it, so took a different car. On my lunch break, I did a little testing (battery was a bit low on voltage). Took battery to AutoZone and had them test it (it's new-ish); tested good, but needed charge. They threw it on the charger for me, and I picked it up after work. Got home, installed it and still no attempt to crank. Tested voltage--seems good. Swapped out DME relay with a spare--no dice. Swapped out one of the ignition fuses with the horn's fuse (same fuse), no good. Don't have a spare of the other ignition relay fuse, so couldn't swap that out.

So, where do I start? A friend suggested starter solenoid, but it seems weird to me that it would crank beautifully on Friday, then be dead on Tuesday.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[John_AZ]

Friend may be right. Per Clarks:

Troubleshooting - Engine

Pull the starter and use jumper cables to test.

But first clean the battery connections and test the alternator output---you had a low battery.

Clean the main ground on the engine block.

GL
J_AZ

[gacook]

My brain seems to be firing a little slow this morning...

John, based on what I've read on your link, I would hook one end (say Red) of my jumper cable to the postive on my battery, and then the Black of the same end of cable onto...the same terminal of the starter that usually is connected directly to the battery (the constant)? And then touch the other end of the jumper cables together to see if the starter spins. Am I envisioning that correctly?

[gacook]

Oh, and battery connections are clean (did that a few months back when I replaced the battery). I haven't cleaned the main ground on the engine block...will have to do some research to find that (I'm new to wrenching). And will have to look into how to test the alternator output, as well. Thanks for giving me some starting places!

[John_AZ]

To test a starter already out of the car...

Connect a set of jumper cables to the battery. If the car battery is being used, remove the car POS and NEG cables first.

Connect the NEG jumper cable to the starter by the bolt hole "ear"
Connect the POS jumper cable to the starter "B+ == thick bolt normally connected to battery"

Connect a remote starter switch or DIY (see picture) to the starter "B+" AND the thin solenoid bolt on the starter.



Now press the remote starter button and you will see the starter spin and bendix engage if working properly.



J_AZ

[Volhv]

Video Time!
Testing a 944 Starter - YouTube

[John_AZ]

Nice! With audio!
J_AZ

[gacook]

Awesome! Thanks, guys.

[gacook]

Just to follow-up...

Problem ended up being the battery. I got a friend of mine to help me push start the car so I could get it pulled up into the garage (it's usually parked out on the street, the Z gets my garage). Got it jacked up and look underneath at the starter--corrosion on the wires (it's monsoon season here and I've driven through some pretty serious rain storms and huge puddles). Think to myself, "Well, that's likely the problem." Get the wires disconnected and give them a nice thorough cleaning, and also clean them up on the battery side, as well for good measure. Get it all put back together, turn the key--Click.

Grumble a bit and then tear everything apart, remove the starter and battery and take them both to Auto Zone for testing (remember, I already took the battery for testing once, a couple weeks ago). They hook up the battery--11V, 0% charge. Hook up the starter in their tester, cranks right up beautifully. Give me a new battery (and I buy new positive battery post connector with the $5 they owe me from difference in battery cost), take it back home, get everything put together, and it fires no problem. Drive it around a bit, go to a friend's house for a while. Get back in an hour or so later, fires no problem. So, took it home and gave the old girl a bath for behaving and running so beautifully for me