86' 5kTQ hall controller...

[John Forbes]

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Hi list. My first post so I guess I'll give a bit of background, if you're =
not interested skip to the 2nd paragraph:
I am a Porsche mechanic in south Florida with very little experiance in Aud=
is, just bought a '86 5000 turbo quattro about 3 weeks ago. Brother-in-law =
and many of my friends that used to work with me at the Porsche shop now wo=
rk for Champion Racing on the S4s that compete in the Speed Gt series I bet=
 most of you have seen. Bought the Quattro mostly because one of my custome=
rs (I never did work on it though) offered it to me in running order for $7=
50. Its very clean and straight on the outside, and yes it actually did run=
 and drive so I figured it was a good enough deal, plus I needed something =
bigger then my 914 on occasion. The car needed shocks and wheel bearings so=
 I bought an '88 5kT automatic as a parts car (that also ran and drove) tha=
t belonged to another customer of mine. Quick swap of the front suspension,=
 as I had installed new shocks on the parts car about 3 months ago and knew=
 the wheel bearing were fairly new too, and I was good to go...or so I thou=
ght. Found a bunch of vacuum leaks so I swapped some hoses from the parts c=
ar, and bought a new michelin man hose and airflow meter boot to fix them a=
ll. Same night as the vacuum fix I went ahead and did the timing belt and w=
ater pump as both were on thier last legs.



Went to start the car up after I finished the above work and it wouldn't fi=
re. I had had some problems with the car intermitantly (sp?) running on 4 c=
ylinders before so I figured it would be related. Checked vacuum first, all=
 hoses and boots in good condition, all clamps tight, no known leaks. Then =
I go to fuel. Pressures good, went through the fuel head, all adjustments s=
eem ok, fuel system good as far as I can tell. Then spark. Why does it alwa=
ys have to be the last thing you check thats what your looking for? When I =
have someone else crank it while I'm checking spark via coil wire I would g=
et a few pulses, but then it would stop. Had a spare distributor that came =
with the car, droped it in, same problem. Then the coil, still same. Of cou=
rse now I sit and stare at it thinking that will help, until it dawns on me=
 that I have the Bentley manual sitting in the passenger seat. Went through=
 it testing the coil, then the hall sender, and then the connections to the=
 computer, everything checked out fine. By the time this happened I had tho=
ught I got all the good stuff out of the parts car and the boss made me sen=
d it away to that glossy white garage in the sky. According to the manual t=
he hall controller is bad. Of course I forgot to grap the computer out of t=
he parts car before it went away, and now I'm going to have to pay for it..=
.literally. My question to the list: In my search through junkyards nearby =
what year and models have the same computer to replace my original? Are the=
y different between the manual and automatics? Any info would help because =
I'm very limited in knowladge when it comes to this type of stuff on the ca=
r=2E

Other then the mostly minor problems I've had so far I really like the car,=
 had I known how nice these 5000s actually are I would have bought one inst=
ead of a second 914!

-Cody Forbes
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