Gentlemen, Hae recently inherited 84 240dl B23f automatic. Other fella couldnn't get it running and gave up. I went through steps you folks have suggested in some of your posts. Jumped 5-7 fuses got dead fuel pumps to do their thing-no run. Check wires ad-infitum -no run. Changed both relays(System and fuel pump) on R side kickboard. no run. Changed ecu plus system relay, and Joila. She ran..That is the good news. Started it up next day smell burning from R side under dash we think. Here is bad news..the Ecu is very warm, almost hot and has burned resistor-like stink. Oh,oh. Turned her off. Subsequently discovered hot battery cables at battery connect (good battery) (oops, forgot to mention that the first battery had drained dead with nothing left turned on overnight. Must be something shorting somewhere.) Second battery is good, as stated. Then I felt the coil. OUCH! It was very hot. Methinks that tain't cricket. Should coil get too hot to hold? Could this be burning out the ECUs? What else should I look at possibilities burning out expensive ECU? OK, Sherlocks...lead the way. Dillon

/// I posted to your later request asking for symptoms. I see you have them here.

Hot battery post clamp.--- This is a key point.-- It takes a very large short or a internal resistance to make the battery post clamp hot. Two or three hundred amperes starter current won't do it. The 16 or 18 gauge wiring in the harness would vaporize before the battery post clamp got hot. Loose, dirty cables, defective joints inside the crimped post clamp will cause heat at the battery post.

Start with the battery cable. That alone could have caused all your no-starts. If low voltage caused some device/motor to stall that will burn up the ecu. (post a week or so ago.)

Pull the ecu and see what is burned. Open it if you can. Repost to either of your requests.

The coil part of your post makes me wonder if it might be a hot lead nearby with a short. Recently, I was replacing that funky in-line fuse with a water-tight fuse. This is a classic failure point in LH2+ systems. And, yep, it happened to me once. Anyway, I found that the wire leading to this, which lies along the wheel well, was frayed pretty bad. It certainly was making some contact with ground in its condition.

Maybe, just maybe, this is causing your trouble with the battery and with other components.

So check that. Just release the in-line fuse holder from its location (behind the battery, next to some relays on a little rail) and pull it under and back so you can inspect it.

Note: my wiring is pretty screwed up so the location of this wire, along the wheel well might only apply to me.

/Jarrod

Have a second thought. When trying different relays the guy who was doing it tried one of the orange relays ( I believe was pulled from the left side of underdash) It has the same plug arrangement and the guy said it made no difference as long as the plugs were the same Huh??? This, by the way, is the only relay that works. Could it be too hot current from orange relay. Seems to me both sys and fuel relays were black. Have a floor full of used ones, duh.