Good afternoon,
So I have cleared all the documentation hurdles (did you know that California listed VINs using model names- 280SE 123456 instead of 108 018 12 123456? I didn't either- until now. Neither did my local DMV. They needed a lot of convincing) and now have
30 23 days to get the car in for a safety inspection, which I don't think should be a problem as it has all new fuel lines, brake lines, rebuilt calipers with new pads, and more already done. But it does need to run all the way to the inspection station (~25 miles) and back. Today is the first time I've had it on the autobahn, though for only 10 miles or so, and at moderate speed (indicated 60 MPH).
The motor died when exiting the autobahn, wouldn't restart, and I had to be flat-bedded home. It still wouldn't restart after it was offloaded in my driveway. I think it's spark because when trying to start it, the timing light didn't flash. So I
- Checked / adjusted / tightened the points
- Checked voltage at the coil- 3.8 V
- Checked resistance at the coil- 0.6 ohms
- Checked resistance of the ballast resistors- both measured about 6 ohms without disconnecting them. There's continuity there, so that's enough, right?
- Checked resistance of the coil wire- 1064 ohms
Reassembled. Still no start.
Pulled a spark plug, connected it to plug wire 1, and there was spark. Not only that, the engine started and ran just fine on 5 cylinders. A few more starts with the timing light. When the timing light stopped flashing, the engine stumbled and RPMs dropped. Sometimes this could be solved with the application of more throttle, sometimes it just died.
Then it ran beautifully for 30 minutes all around town before I parked it for the day.
The problem seems to be intermittent. The other ignition components check out. So I suspect the transistor ignition box (CDI box in Porsche-speak) Ideas? I've had no luck finding a backup / known good ignition box.
