Bringing back a 1987 Turbo

[The Glademister]

I had to jump on this one. Typical situation were the seller didn't have the time or resources. Here's the stated issues by the seller... transmission won't shift into 2nd gear, leaking slave clutch cylinder, sun roof inoperative, needs oil pressure sender.

When we met we hooked up a jump box and the motor turns over fine but apparently no spark. The DME and KLR got some moisture in the footwell. The interior is rough but I've seen much worse. Some wetness in the carpet but it doesn't look like rain water has been pooling for long periods. Everything appears to be there except the spare tire and engine belly pan.

So I bought the car well below NADA value.

Got it back to my garage and pulled out all the personal items not wanted by the PO. Opened windows and hatch for drying. Noted the car has a recent over-spray. That's cracking over the rock guards and door strips. Passenger exterior door handle NF. At least the hatch and hood shocks work. Changed out the oil pressure sender for a known good used part. Good oil pressure while cranking.

Went thru procedures for non-start condition. DME relay is aftermarket and ohms out good. Installed DME circuit jumper and fuel pump works good. Changed out reference and speed sensors with new parts. Installed new rotor, cap, spark plug and coil wires. Installed known good coil (Master Blaster). All those parts were from an aborted '83 944 project. Cranked using ether and no fire. I suspect the DME is toast.

I'll take the modules to a buddy's house and swop out in a running turbo car to confirm.

[kdjones2000]

Should clean up nicely.

What does the engine bay look like?

[nize]

perfect opportunity to go with a stand-alone engine management system!

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by kdjones2000

Should clean up nicely.

What does the engine bay look like?

From the FB Marketplace ad photos...

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by nize

perfect opportunity to go with a stand-alone engine management system!

These 944 Turbos will have more resale value keeping as close as OE as possible IMHO.

Thanks for the tip though!

[The Glademister]

Got the sunroof off by taking the covers off the gear drives. One gear was completely stripped. Noted that the corners on the fiberglass cover are ragged. How does that happen? I have another sun roof off a '83 944. Although that one is manual operation can it be adapted to the electric function?

I also pulled the seats and cleaned up the carpet. The pile is in okay condition but there's staining that's going to hard to get out. The rear carpet is really threadbare so I decided to try carpet and fabric spray paint. There's no light gray (linen) available so I went with a sand color. That masked the stains and bare areas a bit but I'm not sure I want to do that to all the carpet. What do you guys think?

[jjeffries]

Nice car and nice job. I have painted the carpets in mine also … 87 924S, same color scheme. See my thread in the main 924/44/68 section. I bought SEM Color Coat in quarts and shot it thru my cheap HF gun.

I will be following this (and have a spare decent red sunroof if you’d like it. Postage might be tough from CT to TN. I has no hardware …. is an early one I bought for the manual latches.

John

[nize]

i think the sunroof corner got ragged because someone tried to pry it open, or it was dropped/chipped.

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by jjeffries

I will be following this (and have a spare decent red sunroof if you’d like it. Postage might be tough from CT to TN. I has no hardware …. is an early one I bought for the manual latches.

John

Thanks John. I'll try to retro fit the sunroof from a parts '83 944 but thanks for the offer!

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by nize

i think the sunroof corner got ragged because someone tried to pry it open, or it was dropped/chipped.

Agreed. With the roof gears stripped it's easy to see someone prying. First time I've seen that. I think mostly the sunroof on these cars was seldom used.

[mytrplseven]

I got tired of trying unsuccessfully to replace the OEM drive system for the sunroof so I bought all the miscellaneous parts and converted to manual latches. Much better.

[nize]

Originally Posted by mytrplseven

I got tired of trying unsuccessfully to replace the OEM drive system for the sunroof so I bought all the miscellaneous parts and converted to manual latches. Much better.

do you have more details/pics of your conversion? does it tilt open for ventilation?

[mytrplseven]

It does tilt open by turning the lock latches 90 degrees, opening the rear of the roof and then lowering the lid so the latches are sitting in the rain channel. It involves a fair amount of work to convert but not as much as trying to replace the drive mechanism in total.

[The Glademister]

So I did get this 951 started a couple weekends ago with fresh fuel and shooting ether into the intake manifold through a vacuum port. At that point the engine came up to temp and has good oil pressure.

Last weekend was a three day for me and I got several things done. The DS mirror was dangling and I knew that was because the hollow bolt had backed out. Following Clark's I disassembled the mirror and tightened the bolt. Unfortunately one of the mirror motors has stripped gear but at least the mirror is not dangling.

The DS window regulator was misbehaving so I pulled the door card to inspect. There's something odd there as the regulator motor works fine, the mechanism lifts and retracts but the rear top roller come out of the window frame track with the window about 3 inches down. Perhaps an early car regulator (if there's a difference). That goes on the back burner for now.

The parts order arrives and I swap out the clutch slave cylinder. That bleeds out well and the clutch feels good. So the next morning I get the car started on the lift with the wheels about a foot off the floor and start shifting through gears. The trans axle will not shift into 2nd or reverse with the engine running. However, I can stop the engine, put in those gears, start the engine and the wheels spin. I'm pretty sure the syncros on that gear stack are shot.

So I'm removing the exhaust from cat back (or straight pipe in this case), taking the CV axles off the trans axle and draining the gear oil. That actually looks pretty good with no metal chunks - just some very small flakes in the bottom of the drain pan. I'm pretty sure this trans axle can repaired.

One thing that is troublesome though, the engine has intermittent no start condition. For example, I changed the motor oil and filter. Started the engine for a moment and then turned it off to check level. Add some oil and then it won't start. I think there's something goofy with the coil as I messed around with that and the distributor and the car started back up. I'll take a harder look at that this weekend.

[Fast Freddy 944]

Pull that sticker off the bumper and you might get a resale. The carpet is cashed. The tow hook has to go. Lots of work and you will be on your way. Note: fresh 951's are going for up to $20,000 on the market today...

[The Glademister]

Saturday I systematically went through Clark's Fuel-16 Troubleshooting list. Persistent no-start as everything checked out. Then I got to the injector test. Unplugged one injector and plugged in a noid light. Bingo, the engine starts and there's good signal on the noid light. So I'm thinking the injector drivers had shut down. Shut the engine down, removed the noid light and plugged that cable back on to the injector. The engine starts again but after about 5 minutes at idle, shuts down as if the ignition switch was turned off. It's back to a no start condition. Going back to the list, I do a fuel pressure check on the fuel rail with DME jumper installed. Fuel pressure and leak-down are both within specs.

At this point I'm suspecting the ignition switch (although that voltage is good at the DME plug), injector harness or the DME (which worked fine in another 951). I've got a Lindsey injector harness (for 944 NA however) which I'll install once I confirm wiring instructions for 951. I'll probably order a new switch just to get that off the list.

Clark's has good instructions for changing an early switch. Anybody have a link to a late 944 ignition switch DYI?

[The Glademister]

Installed Lindsey injector harness and new ignition switch. Still no start. So I sent the DME and KLR off to ECU Doctors and got those rebuilt. Their report said there were issues with both units. Got those back yesterday, installed and still no start.

Although this 951 had no key switch by the drivers door for an alarm system, I just had to make sure there wasn't a module. So I pulled the glove box and found a device with jumpers installed on the alarm sub-harness. I don't know if this is OEM or something a PO had put in. Anybody seen one before?

[kdjones2000]

That should be the stock connector for no alarm.

Seems to me that you have covered many bases already.
1) You did the Clark's plan and it checked out, but what about the DME Test Plan?
2) Computers rebuilt, so injector drivers *should not* be the issue. I assume from above that after it cut out, that it still would not start if you unplugged one of the injectors? What happens if you jump the DME relay?
3) What about fuel flow? You checked pressure, but is the pump flowing enough?
4) One experience I have had with these cars is that if the speed sensor is too close to the flywheel or gets damaged, that the engine can cut out and you get a no-start until it cools down. Re-check your gaps and condition of the sensors.
5) It could be that the injector harness may have something going on, but I guess you already replaced that. These engines get HOT, and wiring gets brittle.
6) When it is in no-start mode, are you getting tach bounce? What about spark? Looks like you have already checked the distributor/rotor and replaced the coil.
7) This is an '87, so the airbag module also plays into the DME relay activation. Is the connector to the orange module up behind the glovebox connected securely? There is a way to jumper out the airbag module if you want to try that.
8) I have also had the situation where the tines on the pins in connector to the DME were spread out, making no or intermittent connection to the DME. Take your ohms/voltage measurements from that connector; that way you know what the DME is actually reading/seeing.
9) When it is in no-start mode, have jumpered out the KLR and see if it ran?

Good luck...

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by kdjones2000

That should be the stock connector for no alarm.


Good luck...

Interesting... I suspected it was OE. What is different that Clark's says to jumper pins 1 & 4 and 7 & 8. The jumpers on this device are on 1 & 4 and 5 & 6. I did swap 5 & 6 to 7 & 8 to no effect.

Thanks for all the notes and suggestions. I'll reply to those later.

I also tried adjusting the flywheel sensors yesterday and discovered something different there.

More later.

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by kdjones2000

7) This is an '87, so the airbag module also plays into the DME relay activation. Is the connector to the orange module up behind the glovebox connected securely? There is a way to jumper out the airbag module if you want to try that.
Good luck...

So I did investigate the airbag module and there was some electrical tape on the wires near the connector. Remove that and two wires were cut. I've butt spliced those back together but still no start. Next I'll replace the fuel filter to confirm proper flow.