another question about my new 944 (bad alternater, starter?)

[xveganxcowboyx]

Yesterday my car on two different occasions my car (1985 944) would not start. I had just swapped the battery and also had an arc betwwen the positive terminal and my hood. So I figured it had to do with that some how. The second one I attributed to me attempting to repair the sad looking positive terminal lead. Both times after fiddling with the lead it started. Today after driving it out to a store for work it would not start. It seems to have power to lights, sensors, radio, etc.... When I turn the key it just clicks once. I can hear a slight ongoing noise as I keep the key turned, but it's not the starter turning over. I had my coworker try to jump me. Not a single change. I push started it and managed to drive home. The battery light was red at idle and faded as I revved up to almost nothing around 4k. It seemed like when I was on the highway (revved) for a while and then slowed down it didn't get fully red right away, like it had a little charge. I should also mention that immediately after push starting it it would only run right above 2k. This problem faded after a minute or so. When I got home it wouldn't start again though it seemed like it had full power to everything else.

The possible problems I see:

1:bad battery-seems unusual if it powers everything else and won't turn over with a jump either.

2:Bad starter

3oor connection somewhere-as I said. The positive lead is sad looking, but seems solid. 1 black wire has been pulled loose (looks like it broke so someone stuck it out of the way.

4:Bad alternator-I had the battery indicator problem on another car before. It just seems like it should be able to start off the battery or with jump.

Am I missing something? What's the best way to test these theories?

BTW-other points of interest. The battery light sometimes seemed to be on, though dim as hell sinse I bought it.

Also it was raining fairly hard today, but not yesterday.

[xveganxcowboyx]

Never mind. Shitty battery cable. Replacement on the way.

[Ben944]

I was just about to say that.

[xveganxcowboyx]

Even worse problem. No spark. I'm guessing ignition coil or cap and rotor replacement. Any other possibilities? All connections that I can see look good and plugs look fine. Wires are not cracked. Damn old cars. Too many problems.

[Cbass]

Get a multimeter and a service manual, Haynes or Bentley should have all the resistance figures you need. Check every component of your ignition system for resistance and then you'll know.

[xveganxcowboyx]

I have a manual (don't remember brand off the top of my head, but it's a common teardown manual) and a multimeter. The symptoms that looked possible were bad wiring on battery or ignition components or bad ignition coil. I read up on the coil and it showed me how to check, but just said compare to recommended figures. They told me what I know and not what I need. Fortunately I'm leaning towards the bad wiring around the battery. I've already had problems there (no start and strands of the main wire melting....). I picked up a new lead and I'm going to splice that back a few feet to good wire. If it doesn't fix it I'll just have to look harder I guess.

[Ben944]

Originally Posted by xveganxcowboyx

Damn old cars. Too many problems.

Thats what makes them so fun!!!!!

[xveganxcowboyx]

I love working on it. Performance and maintenance stuff are more fun, but working out the hiccups is good too. After just losing 2 low mileage cars I was kind of hoping for a period where I didn't have to do anything besides change the oil. Also, I'm still recovering from the financial blow of buying 3 cars in 4 months.

Oh well, when I fix things I'm always that much happier when it's running so I guess it's nice. I cut the power cable back 3 - 4 feet and replaced it with a new one. No problems yet so I think that was it. Unfortunately the cable was even a little nasty there. I think it will be fine though. It runs great and I've been having some fun on corners in this rain.