This morning, my wife's Explorer wouldn't start.....Luckily, the 914 is a third car, so I gave her the keys to the Honda, switched the baby seats and hopped into the 914 for a short jaunt to work. The car ran like S*%@. It was running rough and had no power (even less than normal). To make matters worse, it limped all the way to work, so now I have to work. Maybe I can leave early to adress some "car issues."

Do you have a rain tray? Withoutn a rain tray mine would always run rough after a rain until it got warm enough to evaporate off all the water that got where it shouldn't be. (really warm, for a long time.. like 50-60 miles)

I had to remove the rain tray because the battery cut off knob was hitting the bottom of the tray and not allowing the lid to close. Anyway, I went out for lunch and the car would not start - no power to the fuel pump. I also found the source of this mornings frustration - fuel injector electrical connection had come off (no boots to hold in place).

After I had reconnected the FI, the pump worked again. Why? It might be unrelated since I was poking around in the engine compartment for a few minutes, tapping on this and that and checking electrical connections and fuses.

Thanks for the concern and advice

Now all is good.

Cool! Glad you figured it out. As far as the rain tray problem goes, if you mount an optima sideways the cutoff switch won't stick up. Or maybe you could move the cutoff switch to the other terminal? Works the same on either terminal. Without a rain tray you should definitely pull the sound pad from the firewall if you have one. It'll hold water and cause rust!

Now what's wrong with the explorer?

Re Explorer: I'm thinking bad battery, but wondering why? It could just be old and not holding a charge. Something weird though. I heard a tick tock from the engine compartment when the car was off - as I was hooking up the charger. After a little investigation, it turned out to be coming from the two rear window wiper relays. I turned off the rear window wiper switch inside of the car (which the kids had probably kicked on) and the tick tock stopped. Whay was there power to these relays? Any ideas?

I'm gonna replace the battery and see how far that takes me. [not alternator - when running, it is charging.}

I'll try the positive post for the battery cut off - good idea.

PS - After lunch, called in "working from home due to car issues" - not a lie

Hmm, maybe there's a relay that powers parts of the acessory circuits that got stuck on? Hard to diagnose that sort of thing without a wiring diagram. See if there's anything else besides turning off the stwich that can make the tick-tock stop. Could also be something sticking in the ignition switch.

Good to hear you got the fleet going again

I hear Bowlsby has access to the FI boots...ask him.

As to the battery....charge it over night and see what it reads with a volt meter. Should be 12.5v with the engine off.....13+ at idle, 13.5-14 at 2500 rpms.