danlboon

She still wont start

I've dismissed as many things as i could with the limited time i had over the weekend (am juggling a newborn baby and an anxious wife!), am don't feel any closer to diagnosing what might be going wrong.

As per Landseer's suggestion, i tested the injectors with a noid light (LED bulb i had lying around) and the three that i tested all had the LED flashing (although one of them less brightly than the other two). Injectors seem to be pulsing. Didn't get around to replacing the connectors, as it doesn't seem to be the problem.

Disconnected a fuel line and confirmed the fuel pump was pumping while the engine was cranking.

Replaced all the sparkplugs: I had read in another thread that the plugs can foul if it is started and then not run for a while (as per my engine start to test the injectors seating). I also pulled several of the leads and cranked, and confirmed they were all sparking.

So i'm kinda stumped. I seem to have fuel and spark, and there's no reason compression or timing has changed...why won't she run?

Maybe it's a sensor problem:
I was trying to remove the plug from the LH brain to do some testing of connectivity/resistance, but i cannot figure out how to get the plug fully removed. I can get the metal latch unclipped, but then it just hinges from the other end (won't slide out).
Feeling foolish....what am i missing?

Also, can anyone confirm for me which is the LH plug, (assuming its the one with a vacuum connection)?

PS - yes been using prodigious amts of anti-seize along the way

danlboon

After seeing the noid light getting a signal from the ECU, i had downplayed the injectors being an issue. They were.
So after procrastinating a bit, i finally finished chopping out the suspect injector wiring and connectors today (ie all of them) and replacing all 8.

Has anyone seen injector harness wiring this bad before?








I bought some new style connectors that are a lot easier to get on and off, and also found some 90 degree boots for them.








And finally, a can of whup ***




I actually got it to fire up without the 'start ya bastard' but i liked the editorial flow....

When i say start, it fired up for about 3 seconds the first time and then 5 seconds the second time...bellowing clouds of white smoke.
I'm hoping the smoke was from the oil that fell into the cylinders when i changed the sparklugs (Yeah, it needs cam cover gaskets refreshed).

Disapointingly, after catching twice...it now refuses to catch again. Fouled spark plugs?

danlboon

So i dont think it was fouled plugs in the end (tho i took them out about 3 times and kept cleaning them). They weren't that dirty after the first clean.

What i DID find was that after i deleted the car alarm a PO had left in there, it started right up.

Sounds so obvious in hindsight, but i was getting fuel, spark and injector pulse at some stage, so it was only intermittent. It seemed to activate only at certain times in the sequence of pulling the battery in and out regularly.
It had some wires already chopped out so someone had removed the siren and something else from the engine bay, so i had assumed it was negated. Obviously when i had the battery out for so long, the alarm reset and for the first time in many years and became armed.

I'm deliriously happy to have it back up and running.
And to boot there seems to be a fair bit more midrange power than before. Must have been that vacuum leak (or three).

Landseer

I think you motivated it with the can of whip ***. Nice trick, I'll file that away for future use!

Congrats on getting operational. These things are fun to drive when freshened a bit.

danlboon

Thanks Landseer.
BTW - your tip with the injectors was on the money. A few were shorting in the harness and bringing the rest of the injectors down with them....

Dave928S

Try some heat, then freeze spray. If they're still tough to get out, cut a slot across the top and use an impact driver ... that'll get the bastards out!