Fontana

Okay, so I went to Autozone and had the battery checked and it tested good. They said it was 45% charged at the time. i had it slow charged by them and it tested 100%
I got home, connected the fully charged battery and still the same deal. I removed the mass air unit completely and noticed a strong gas smell. I opened up the throttle body flap and stuck my hand in there only to find a puddle of gas. I must of soaked up about six paper towels with gas. I still think the car is flooded as it wont start. How can I get that gas out of there, or what else should I do?
On a side note, after the battery was fully charged, there is only one clicking sound coming from the CE panel rather than the three that were present before.

WallyP

Pull Fuse #42 (Fuel Pump fuse), hold the throttle open and try starting the engine. If it starts and runs for a few seconds, replace the fuse and try a normal start again.

Bill Ball

Anthony called me and reported a LOT of gas sitting in the throttle body, as he describes above. BINGO! The only way I know that gas can get in there is a leaky diaphragm in the fuel pressure regulator or dampners. This would account for the hard starting and very poor performance.

The clicking relays? That I'm not too sure about. Anthony mentioned that the relay for the radiator flaps was hot, even after pulling the fuse for the flaps. I had him remove that relay. Also, he mentioned one of the other relays was labelled "Ford", apparently in the ABS relay slot. The Ford PN he gave me looks like a standard 5-pin relay. ABS only uses 4 pins...I suppose the 5th pin (87a) would be ignored. Still....

Fontana

Tried that with no luck...

Fontana

Bill, thank you so much for taking time to try and help me out over the phone.

Bill advised me to try this...One at a time, I hooked up a transparent hose to the regulator and the two dampeners and tried to suck on them to see if gas would come out and nothing... I also tried hooking up a basketball air pump to the hose to push air in and none of the three would let air in either.

Fontana

I cleaned the contacts on the positive side of the battery and that didn't help start the car. I am thinking the plugs might be gas soaked, not allowing any spark? I tried quite a few times, pulling the #42 fuse out and dry cranking the car, did this 6 or 7 times, then put the fuse back in and tried to start the car, but again with no luck.

Bill Ball

I would recheck and see if gas has entered the throttle body again. From the amount of gas you found I would expect gas in one of the vacuum lines from the dampners or FPR to be very obvious. If not, then someone else is going to have to explain how gas got in there. Hopefully others will chime in with some ideas. There may be other things preventing the car from starting, but gas pooling in the throttle needs to be addressed.

Landseer

Most of us that rescue these things have a mental checklist, similar to the PPI checklist, to get them running.
Somebody should come up with a moniker for it. GTFR checklist, maybe, get the (car) running.


We've seen battery strap failure in at least 10 east coast cars.
The flat, black plastic covering hides corrosion that gives intermittent and then complete electrical failure.
My advice is immediately, without any testing (because you can't test for it easily), replace the flat OEM strap with a $7 cable from Advance Auto.

Regardless of whether that gets you running reliably, I'd disconnect that battery --- right now today, and pull the electrical panel out. If the car is new-to-you, and this step hasn't been done on an east coast car, go no further until you pull, clean, replace or polish all fuses and replace the 10 or so standard relays with new. Inspect wires on back of panel with magnifying class (old guys need this at least, maybe you don't) and move the wires a bit to look for cross-melts.

Inspect every wire on every plug of the harness for damaged insulation --- huge telltales.

I'd rehab the 14 pin connecter, too, whether you think it needs it or not.

And I'd look for insulation degradation on the harness in front of motor, where it crosses over toward the antilock brake module on the front of the inside driver's fender.

And, I'd do everything needed to ensure the valley grounds are clean and that the coil ends and distrib caps are clean.

Know that bad coil wires or corrosion in coil ends will take the car down as well.

Not worth even trying to start an old 928 without this prerequisite work.

The more you can confirm that is "right", the easier to find what's wrong.

Fontana

CE panel was pulled and inspected already as well as the 14 pin connector and harnesses. Car was garage kept it's entire life so most of what I cleaned was basically already clean in terms of contacts. I will definitely replace the ground strap. That is a good call, thanks...

mickster

Anthony, if I remember correctly, when you got this car it wasn't running due to a fuel issue, correct?

We know it's delivering fuel.

I may have missed it but is the EZ-K delivering spark at the plugs? Just wondering if there is missing ignition/no ignition.

Someone with better knowledge please chime in.

Fontana

Hey Mike, yes it was not running "Due to a fuel issue". I checked, it's getting spark.

mickster

Keep me posted, especially if it gets to a point where an LH brain needs to be swapped to check yours; we can reach out to the local 928 community.

But first start with the ground strap and the other suggestions before we even try to cross this bridge.

John Speake

Sound more like an LH problem now.....

SQLGuy

But, how is fuel getting into the throttle body if not through the vacuum system? It would be an awfully long crawl uphill from the injectors and intake ports.

Landseer

Did you take the backing plates off the female and male electrodes of the 14 pin?

Valley ground cleaned?

Inspection of CE is part of it. Replaced all fuses, all 53 relays?

CPS replaced, MAF plug perfectly intact, M&F, plus wires behind each not frayed?

New Temp 2?

And yes, if not already marked with stickers, send off LH and MAF for circuitry revamp.

Mine spent its whole life in a garage too. A few short runs in wet salt / all grounds are setup as disimilar metals on these cars...?

Car's critical electronics are 24 years old. Fine tooth comb, replace or rehab all. Its not about troubleshooting until that is done.