M030
Dork
4/19/14 9:59 a.m.
My 1978 924 was sitting in a field from 2002 until last month, when I bought it. Miraculously, with just fresh gas & a new battery, the car fired up and runs well. The trouble is that none of the gauges or lights work (except the cable-driven speedometer). I suspected a bad ground and regrounded the body. This made no difference. From experience with old VWs, I'm thinking I may have to replace the fuse box. Electrons and I don't get along well, so does anyone have any troubleshooting advice?
They had fusebox troubles when they were new, so I can only imagine the melted stuff in one that age. Unplug every electrical connector you can find, and look for green or hot.
You can pull the fuse box down and open it to clean the internals.
The gauges themselves have 1/4" blade connectors on them as well that can build up corrosion.
Also the ground bloom behind the fuse box is known to have issues.
Don't forget to check and clean the fuses as well as the connections in the engine bay.
There's several write ups on the 924board.org, including one on adding an extra ground for the gauges to the stud behind the center speaker cover.
Good luck!
My 911 responded to cleaning every ground on the car. Something like 24 of them. It responded even better to pulling the fuse box and every single fuse and polishing all of the connectors and fuses and relay plugs and their relays and reinstalling with good dielectric grease. It's a lot of work, but at least it's basically free which can't be said for much Porsche work.
