My 914 over the past couple days has been getting harder and harder to start and I assumed it was the battery. I charged the battery and the starting issue got worse? Today I went and tried to start and the motor sounded like a bucket of bolts when starting, but finally started and ran fine. After shutting down and trying to restart it made terrible noises, turned over very slowly and finally did not start. When turning over the noise was horrible? What could the issue be? It sounded so bad I checked to see if there was oil in the car? The oil looked dirty so I will change to see if there is anything funny in the oil? ANY IDEAS WHAT IT COULD BE?

the cranking issue could be a bad tranny to body ground strap or connection--maybe------noises, can't comment on--hard to hear from here

bad starter?

Just charging a bad battery still gets you a bad battery. Have you put a meter on it? Load tested it?

Take the valves covers off and look at the valves and springs.
Do a compression or leak down test. Do you have oil pressure? It could be any of bad things but until you find out, do NOT drive it.

I know where I start when I have a funny noise. I check down by the fan for anything loose.

Put a wrench on the alternator nut and try to turn it by hand after removing the plugs. It will have resistance but you should be able to do it. Listen. If there is still sounds it's the alternator or internal to the engine. Drain oil and look for metal, check strainer.

No noise when turning the alternator, check the starter.

Seems like that could get you started, Good luck

Good one Paul with the valve train.

Dave

Look to see if the starter motor has come loose from the bell housing on the transmission. I have only seen this once.... also if you can't turn it by hand, pull the spark plugs and put the car in 5th gear, then have someone push the car. Also see if it cranks with the sparkplugs out. Do a compression test before you start pulling the motor apart. Take the v-belt off it, it may be just your alternator. Could also be pressure plate bolts came loose, or a clutch spring broken. Use a stethoscope to narrow down the noise location if you can. Cheers.

Turned by hand and no funny noises, so I push started and it started right up and ran fine - so it must be something in the started system - that is a releief! Does anybosy know if a starter for a 1.8 is interchangable with a 1.7?

YES