Oop's, Left the ignition on all night.

[Bob's Flat-Six]

I left the key turned to the on position all night and the battery is dead.
I didn't have time to try and start it this morning and kinda thought the battery would be up, But it wasn't when I tried to start her. So she's on the charger now.

Will this hurt anything?

[jmarenas]

[Bob's Flat-Six]

I wish that's what distracted me when I left it on and we were stranded some place

[RoninLB]

I believe that in a points ignition..

if points are closed you could damage the CD box and maybe toast some wires.

I don't know about other dizzy systems

[Bob's Flat-Six]

I havn't tried to start it yet because it's in the garage and early AM now that the battery is up.
But the first thing I did was put my hand on the cd box and the coil and both felt cool like they should, And I didn't smell anything either.
So we'll see in the morning

[ruf-porsche]

1980 SC didn't have points in the dizzy, so you are probably safe.

However the fuel pump could have been running all night and the cylinder could be filled with fuel, in which case you will have a hydro lock if you try to start the engine.

You can pull the plugs and see if they are wet or try to turn the engine over by hand. If they are wet you probably have too much gas in the cylinder(s) or if you can't turn the engine over by hand it also mean that you have too much gas in the cylinder(s).

You can leave the plugs out of the engine and the fuel should evaporate over night, or you can spin the engine and let the engine pump the gas out. Caution make sure the ignition is disable because a spark will ignite the gasoline.

[3.2 CAB]

I have seen the coil get fried from the ignition being left on overnight, they are not really capable of having constant voltage going "in" with no where to go. Chances are if you had the time when you found it, if you would have touched the coil, it would have been extremely hot.

[Bob's Flat-Six]

Yes, the fuel pump was running and I'm sure the cause of the drained battery. I'll check the plugs and turn it over by hand.
I think I'll drain the oil out of the motor too, in case it's contaminated.

3.2cab, I did check the coil right after I turned off the key and it was cool.

Thanks for the advise

[Zeke]

You prabably don't have to change the oil if there is no evidence of lots of fuel being pumped into the cylinders. I'm sure you will check the oil level even when it's cold to make sure there isn't a bunch of gas in it. (Oh, man, the OT bays are gonna get me for ending a sentence in a preposition.)OT

[Bob's Flat-Six]

Well, I turned it over by hand a couple of complete cycles and it seemed fine, So then I pulled the coil wire and spun it with the starter motor enough to build up a little oil pressure a couple of times.
Put the coil wire back on and she fired right up with a bit of a rough idle and a litte bit of smoke, Probably from the gas that was just pumped in from the free spinning.
She smoothed out pretty quick.

Another bullet dodged, This calls for a celebration

Thanks, Everybody

[Doug Zielke]

If your fuel pump runs continuously with the ignition on, but motor not running, there is somthing wrong. There is a switch that controls the fuel pump, working with the air plate. Check it out.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Bob's Flat-Six

Another bullet dodged,

I'd wait a confirm till after the coil and CD was driven a long time to get hot. God forbid it cuts out. If so change both CD and coil.

[Bob's Flat-Six]

Yea Ron, I was thinking that maybe something still might show up, But so far so good when I drove her around town today.
Like I said I didn't feel any heat on either the coil or the CD box right after I turned off the key.
I could hear the pump running, That's what alerted me.

Don't you just love it when stuff like this happens

[ruf-porsche]

Originally posted by Doug Zielke
If your fuel pump runs continuously with the ignition on, but motor not running, there is somthing wrong. There is a switch that controls the fuel pump, working with the air plate. Check it out.

My does the same thing. It starts and run fine. My cars sits for months when the weather is bad, but when I turn the key to the ignition switch and the pump runs for 30 seconds, it always starts up without a lot of cranking.

Or you can check out this thread if you want to read if it iis normal for the pump to always run even when the engine is not running.

Fuel Pump Runs And Runs

The advice my dad, who was a certified mechanic, gave me when ever he saw me tinkering with my cars, was if it not broke, don't mess with it.

[Bob's Flat-Six]

If my pump was running for 16 hours or so What was it doing?
And if it was pumping gas where to?
I could hear the pump whining when I finally turned it off.

I put about 75 miles on her today and she ran fine.

Thanks again, Guys

[3.2 CAB]

They have fuel by-pass lines,(return lines) they return the fuel back to the tank. The only problem really would be if you had an injector in the open cycle of the loop. then that cyl would be full of fuel.

[ruf-porsche]

Originally posted by 3.2 CAB
They have fuel by-pass lines,(return lines) they return the fuel back to the tank. The only problem really would be if you had an injector in the open cycle of the loop. then that cyl would be full of fuel.

3.2 CAB is right about the return lines and injector. Looks like you dodge another bullet

[Doug Zielke]

Yes, there is a fuel return line in the CIS. But the pump should not run all the time. It's a safety feature....imagine if the car crashed, motor stops running, but ignition is on and fuel pump keeps running (to feed a fire). As I say, there should be a switch associated with the air plate to prevent this from happening. (At least there is one on my 3.0).

[Early_S_Man]

No danger to coil ... CDI isn't putting out the 460 Volt pulses to the coil without input trigger pulse from the distributor!

No danger to Bosch CDI, either! That 2N3055 power transistor can run for days and days, years, even ... without overheating or having a problem! If it whines, it is happy!

Permatune is another matter ... a much smaller TO-66 power transistor is used, with a lower power rating! And, they potted it in epoxy on the aluminum-finish Permatunes!

[Bob's Flat-Six]

Good info everybody,

I have wondered about this before and didn't see anything in a search that covered this so it will be there now.

Just to be clear, Is it the CD box that makes the whining sound?
That's what alerted me to the key being on.


And thank's to all, I'd buy you all a beer if you were here.
Ron will probably show up in a few days for his.

I give rain checks too.