Whats wrong with our ignition switches?, What do we know? Options

[JeffBowlsby]

"Ignition switches are junk"

Regularly hear this and similar consternation.

I have continuously owned one or more 914s since 1998...think I have replaced only 1 ignition switches over that time, in one car. My current primary car I have had for over twenty years, still on the original switch as far as I know, I have not replaced it during my ownership.

None my cars have ever had the added relay although I'm not against it.

For those switches removed and in other key ignition switches I have opened up, what I see is part of the housing is cracked in similar locations. Maybe from years of torquing the key over? Not sure. I don't see melted housings (believe they are nylon), no smoke residue or anything out of line, just the cracked housing. Suspect the cracked housing causes some internal misalignment of the internal contacts...i.e. the switch goes bad and needs replacement.

I am thinking the problem is the switch housings that break, not anything to do with excessive current flow through the switch.

Educate me please.

[chmillman]

So, since I had everything mostly apart anyway, just to double check I pulled out the new Porsche-supplied switch and put in the Partworks supplied one. No difference, I was already pretty sure. Odds of having two defective new switches, well, from reading above, I guess it’s possible. However, on the workbench, I was able to insert the key and turn it with an ohmmeter connected to 50 and 15 - contact was made. I even tried it with the old, original cracked switch and it actually still worked. So the switch is most likely not the problem.

I also checked the connectors on the relay board and they look good and uncorroded. So the problem may be at the solenoid/starter connection, tomorrow I will lift the car and start checking underneath. Wondering if I shouldn’t wire a relay from battery + directly to the solenoid, that is actuated by the wire from the starter switch in the cockpit, rather than having the relay in the cockpit near the ignition switch…

[Superhawk996]

Wondering if I shouldn’t wire a relay from battery + directly to the solenoid, that is actuated by the wire from the starter switch in the cockpit, rather than having the relay in the cockpit near the ignition switch…

Your problem and symptoms are indicating you have problems with excessive voltage drop(s) somewhere. Could be in the yellow solenoid wire, the engine to transmission ground strap, or battery cables.

You need to measure voltage drops. Multimeter cannot directly measure resistance accurately enough.

The how to is beyond the scope of this thread. Let me find you a link.
https://www.fenderbender.com/running-a-shop...ircuits-part-11

If you need more assistance - suggest you start a separate thread specific to you car and we can go into detail and work though specific tests if necessary.

BTW - great posts here on the differences between the switches (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[chmillman]

Your problem and symptoms are indicating you have problems with excessive voltage drop(s) somewhere. Could be in the yellow solenoid wire, the engine to transmission ground strap, or battery cables.

Yep - and I am pretty sure it is the yellow wire somewhere along its long and winding road to the engine compartment. To and from I guess, because the battery voltage/current has to come up front from the engine compartment to the switch via the red wire connected to terminal 30 and thense back out to the starter via the yellow wire.

This because of two things - 1, the starter cranks like crazy if I hotwire from the battery+ to the terminal on the solenoid, and 2, we just cleaned all the anchor points and replaced all the ground cables including the engine-trans strap - plus added a couple of additional ground cables to the motor and also redid the + side cables from the battery. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow.