OK, my 911 is cranking about once a day.

Yesterday it cranked with my brother messing with the wire that runs from the coil to the distributor. Today I made sure it had a good connection before trying it, and it cranked and idled well. I moved everything out of the way to test drive it and it wouldn't crank. It may have flooded, there was a strong gas smell. After trying to crank bit for a minute it started sounding bad, it was popping or knocking maybe backfiring while trying to crank, but after that it would only squeal when engaging the starter so I stopped.

There's something going on...

Squealing, a belt maybe, don't know.

Need to be more specific. Cranking and firing are two different things. The engine will crank over all day long and not fire depending on some variables. It will not crank at all depending on other variables. It will fire and run ocassionaly due to other varialbes.


BUT first, is this 3.0 carb'ed or injected ? Anything special with the ignition or is it all stock ? What CDI box is in it ?

charge the battery

I say 3.0 because that's what the guy I bought it from said it was. It's a 2.7 case, but the mechanics thought that it might have a big bore p/c kit and different cams, Who knows.

It was turning over fine until it started squealing (almost like trying to crank it after it's running kind of a sound), it's a new starter. It's carbed, 40ida3c's. I'm suspicious of the permatune (3 pin) unit, it was replaced but I'm only getting into that story if it turns out that it's bad.

The distributor is turned as far clockwise as it can go, I'm thinking that is one of the issues, it idles fine but backfires when given gas, when it cranks.

I was leaning towards an ignition problem, but Now the starter noise and banging when it does turn over (but not firing) have me worried.

Could be...

Sounds like multiple issues. I would start with charging your battery. make sure you have spark. Maybe run a separate power wire to the CDI box and eliminate any of the ignition switch wiring. If you can get it to run it sounds like it is way to far advanced in timing.

If you have any shops down your way that you trust it may be time to take it in to them. I once had a customer tow a car to me that he had been working on for over 2 years to get it running. I checked out a few things with it on his trailer. I had spark and I could hear the fuel pump running. I looked at the gas gauge and it was reading about an 1/8 of a tank. I tapped on the glass a few times and it fell to empty. I put gas in and it fired right up. Sometimes it's the simple things that will get us!

Take it to AA...

I once had my 914 towed to AA to find out that it was out of gas...

Your "new" starter could have a bad bearing.

If the float level in your carbs is to high ... you can flood the engine and it won't clear the fuel that is being constantly delivered to the cylinders while cranking.

The ignition distributor should be at it's midpoint in the arc it will swing. Perhaps it was installed a tooth off. All the way clockwise would be advanced (hope that's right). Hook up a timing light and see where it is firing.

Wiring of the CDI unit:

A terminal wire goes to the #15 of the transformer.

B terminal wire is the switched 12 volt input for the CDI.

C terminal wire is connected to the distributor points.

D terminal is ground.

Looking at the CDI connector on the unit, "A" is far left, "B" is center, "C" is far right, "D" is the spade terminal on the housing. Playing with the wire from the distributor to the coil transformer doesn't do any good as there is no direct connection from the distributor to the transformer.