924Board.org

[B]

Hi everyone
I have been trying to get my car back on the road and I keep hitting this strange speed bump along the way. while adjusting and checking various parts with the hood up I was able to get a nice idle at around 900 and can get it to start up right away after sitting. When I close the hood to take it out, it begins to choke and die - barely maintaining a 400rpm idle speed. I can rev the motor ok, but the rpm's will fall right after.
I have also let it sit and started it cold with the hood down, it starts fine but chugs and almost dies - until I open the hood again - then the rpm's pick back up and settle in.
This is the most puzzling thing to me because it seems fine until the hood goes down - I cannot figure out what or why it would do that.
vac leak ? could one be that bad that I could not hear or feel it? I have changed all of the vac lines except intake boot and distributor boot and charcoal canister .

any help would be extremely appreciated

thanks
Sean
_________________
1979 924 n/a
BAE turbo
5-speed snailshell

[rkn]

maybe your distributor cap is making contact with the hood & causing some intereference. There is very little space in there - my hood actually has scrape marks on the underside because of this
_________________
1980 924NA ROW

[fiat22turbo]

Is your distributor housing mounted wrong, causing it to hit the hood?

The distributor housing on the back of the head has two positions, sometimes these are in the wrong spot and cause an issue.

Check the wiring at the firewall near the hinges?

Otherwise I'd lean towards a vacuum leak.

How are your motor mounts? Perhaps the passenger side mount is broken and causing the intake boot, etc to hit the hood?

Try shaking/moving the vacuum lines/electrical wires by hand to see if perhaps you can replicate the issue.
_________________
Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[ideola]

+1 on the distributor housing orientation.
Sticking with the electrical theme, make sure your battery positive post isn't shorting out on the hood as well. If the battery is loose in the tray, if it's not secured in the correct position, or if it's not the correct size (i.e. too tall) it can short on the hood and wreak havoc with the ignition (among other things). Also, double check all of the grounds and positive connections at the battery, make sure none of the big positive feed cables are loose, frayed, corroded, or otherwise needing attention.
_________________
erstwhile owner of just about every 924 variant ever made

[B]

thank you, thank you and thank you

I moved the coil down - which appeared kind of high, repositioned the center wire from coil to distributor and repositioned some of the plug wires so they laid more flat - closed the hood and took it for a short ride. everything seems fine so far. I am going to let it cool down and try again later

I think one motor mount is going or gone because of the vibration I get at certain rpm's (if anyone knows of a good source for these that would be great ) -
I did try to move and lean on parts to see if I could re-produce the same scenario but I could not - I still have another hose to change - but it does not appear to be affecting anything - at least right now.

I will have a look at the distributor housing - I am pretty sure I double and triple checked that before I put it back together a year or so ago. and yes I will be checking all connections to the battery and leads around the firewall as well

thanks for all of your help - it feels really good to get it back on the road!

Sean
_________________
1979 924 n/a
BAE turbo
5-speed snailshell

[Ozzie]

This is the housing.
As you can see there is double bolt holes everywhere.
If the incorrect holes are used the distributor sits more vertical and the cap and leads rub on the hood.
_________________
Porsche 924 1984 (UK import) NA
Its AUTO and its BLACK
Montego Black on black/red
Engineer of Electro/Mechanical Systems Maintenance