Car's a 1987 998 and over the last couple of months has developed a few
problems starting.
I've had to put a recon starter motor on as the missus burnt the starter
clutch out, this improved things somewhat.
Unfortunately now, every once in a while when I crank her over she turns
really slowly as if the battery is flat, which it is not.
I've checked the alternator which is throwing out just under 14 volts
(13.8 to be precise), checked all the connections etc that are all tight
so this is leading me to thing I've got some wiring breaking down
somewhere.
Any ideas where to start looking ?

TIA
Jim

"Jim" <me (AT) here (DOT) com> wrote


Check the battery connections & the battery earth lead, remove & sandpaper
all rust paint & away, always worth having an extra earth lead from the body
to the engine, chech where the positive lead terminates on the starter
solenoid & the lead from the starter to the solenoid, I would say try a new
battery as a starting point if its more than a few years old,

Steve.

"Jim" <me (AT) here (DOT) com> wrote

Had these problems with my wife's '99 V 1.3i. Fitted a second earth strap
and all these problems stopped.

Chris

Chris wrote:
Check the resistance from the engine to the body of the car, the braded
earth straps can do funny things. Un bolting it, cleaning it up and
reconnecting might help. You could also put the meter on volts between
the engine and body, then get someone to crank the engine and see if you
get a voltage reading. If you do its the earth.

Could also be caused by advanced timing, but if you havent changed it?

cheers


-anthony

Anthony wrote:
Thanks for all the replies, I'll pop out and get another earth lead for
the engine and find somewhere to put it and a new clamp for the postive
side of the battery which has seen better days !

Thanks again

Jim

Jim wrote:
[SNIP]

Just put 2 new earth straps on, just before I went to get them I thought
I better have a look where I was going to attach one, to get the length
right and noticed one strap had broken ! So I thought I better get 2.
Connected them both from the front subframe and one to the alternator
bracket and the other to a starter motor securing bolt. Started fine and
now I'm getting over 14.5 volts to the battery so it looks much healtier.

If I still have problems I'll get another strap between the subframe and
the rest of the body and see if that helps.

Thanks again for all the help

Jim