I’ll play…Signal Red
Porsche Guards Red,
Ha, sorry, can’t be of much help here. It was painted 4 years ago by an outfit in Larkspur, a fabulous job with the exception of some cracking above the exhaust manifold. I have the receipt from the previous owner and all it says is…
“Red”.
It also says $49,900! although about $15k of that is related to “most of” a new bonnet, which was probably the reason for doing it in the first place
Of course it’s showing up as a different shade on everyone’s screen but I would say it’s slightly brighter than a gorgeous deep Signal Red 1989 XJS Collection Rouge and a richer red than the slightly orange-tinged red (not the official name of the colour) 1994 XJS Convertible I once had.
Of course they both look the same in the picture, but they were quite different. Signal Red was the veritable mutts nuts.
Unfortunately its V12 caused me to be on first name terms with most of the local flatbed drivers. They would pull up alongside me a stop lights, laughing. One even followed me for a while - “you know you won’t make it home Rob, just load her up now and go for a cocktail, I’ll take it home for you. By the way, your coolant’s leaking, hows your temperatures…?”.
Thanks everyone for your timely help today, much appreciated.
Back to the original question – If my intermittently loose ground loses its connection while driving, am I about the fry the alternator, electrocute my Gentleman’s Front Bottom Area, or is the only problem that I need to wiggle (sorry Paul) the ground strap in order to restart it?
Rob, sorry if I am probably repeating some of what others have said, but from what I can tell from your photos and your description, the cable to the firewall is a negative/ground cable. (You have confirmed this cable does come from the battery negative post, and that car is negative ground, correct?) It goes through the firewall to a negative kill switch. Where it goes through the firewall, to insulate it from the firewall before it reaches the switch, it goes through an insulator. You say it is tight but loose. I read that to mean the cable is tight to the insulator bolt, but the insulator wiggles in the firewall. So if I understand you correctly, electrically the cable is tight, which is good, but mechanically the insulator is loose in the firewall, which is irrelevant. If the insulator does fall apart, and the negative cable touches the firewall, it will just bypass the kill switch, causing no immediate problem, unless you try to run or start the car with the kill switch off, and then it tries to use this poor contact as a connection, which could heat up. Will you hurt anything with a loose ground? Probably not, but, there is a possibility the lose connection could heat up and ignite something combustible near by. Or, even more remote, connecting and reconnecting at this poor ground could cause a spike and damage something. Looking at the connections in your photo, they do not look burnt, and you said they are tight (both in and outside?), and if that is the case, this does not sound like the source of your intermittent starting.
Tom
What Tom said, although you should verify (trace the wires) that this is a negative kill switch. That being said what you describe sounds remarkably like a dirty switch, normally one would think the ignition, but in your case it also could be the kill switch.
Thanks all.
I drove the car for 7 or 8 short trips today between calls and meetings, making sure I was back home each time before shutting down and attempting to restart, and of course she was perfect every time. No doubt saving the recalcitrance until the next time I try to start her with an audience.
Perhaps all my wiggling, disassembly and gentle sledgehammering yesterday shook out a cobweb or two. I’ll do the same tomorrow, all the time she’s behaving so well I’m tempted to leave well alone…
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