78SC won't start. Has spark and fuel. What more does it need. Out of ideas.Help.

daburg · 05-20-2002, 08:23 AM

Car was in hibernation for 6 months. It started first try and ran for 5 seconds. Would not restart. Ran battery down, put on charge. Tried again a week later, same thing. Tried again a few says later and not even a sputter.
Replaced plugs, rotor & cap. Adjusted valves. Checked grounds and replaced transaxel to body strap. Has spark on all six. Put in fresh fuel. Pulled injectors depressed sensor plate and ran a liter of fuel thru injectors.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what more I can try?

A very frustrated

daburg

Jdub · 05-20-2002, 08:33 AM

I am unsure if any of these suggestions might help, but certainly what you have done is not money wasted. Maybe...

= Fuel pump cannot generate enough pressure to put fuel into cylinders with injectors firmly in place. Maybe put injectors back in and see if any gas getting into cylinders? Here a pressure tester would come in handy.

= Change fuel filter, just in case?

= Timing is off for some unforseen reason. Has the distributor been moved at all that you can see? Also, do you know for a certainty that the rotor in the dist. cap (which is correct, right?) is fully down on the dist. spindle?

Sorry not to be of more help. It is such a shame to take the car out of sleep and not be able to drive it!

Good luck,
John

Early_S_Man · 05-20-2002, 08:34 AM

Is your alarm system functioning properly? If an electrical transient during that 5-second run happened to wipe out the alarm control unit, the results are similar to yours ...

Superman · 05-20-2002, 08:41 AM

The injectors are not in the combustion chamber, so there should be no pressure issue. I would suggest replacing the gasoline. This would mean draining out the old and putting fresh gas in. Truly a pain in the @$$, but today's gasoline becomes junk after about two months.

Put a timing light on the ignition wires. I once had a situation where the plugs would fire just laying on the engine, but inside the combustion chamber, they would not. I discovered this by not being able to operate the timing light with the spark plugs installed.

An engine needs only three things to run. Compression (this is a given, unless the engine was assembled wrong or catastrophin damage has occurred). The right spark at the right time. The proper fuel/air mixture. IN other words, I am telling you that you are correct in your assumption that if it's getting spark and gas, then it will run.

Perhaps the cold start circuit is not operating properly. In this case, it might start anyway with someone lifting the sensor plate so that plenty of gas is sprayed in.

daburg · 05-20-2002, 08:45 AM

Alarm system? Where is it and how do I check it?

Thanx
daburg