Hello again,

Got a chance to work on the car again. Cranks like a champ. Replaced fuel filter and I know I'm getting fuel atleast to the filter. Jumped the relay and both pumps whirl. took a look inside the relay all looks good. replaced and gapped spark plugs and I have spark. put some marvel mystery oil into the cylinders to make sure I have compression. cleaned all the fuses. Changed oil. Cranked with coil disconnected. I also talked to the PO and he said that he let the car sit for 9 months and when he went to start it it wouldn't. I'd like to replace the distibutor car and rotor but no local parts places carry them on hand (damn chyrsler ignition). I guess I'll pull the injectors tomorrow. Any other suggestions? Thanks for any help. Adam.

Pull a plug or two after cranking and see if you are getting any fuel in there.
If you have spark then it must be a fuel or timing issue. You need to crank
the motor with the distributor cap off and see if it turns. You may have a broken timing belt. If not you want to set the motor up at number one firing which is
when the distributor rotor points toward the front of the motor toward the
thermostat housing. The Bosch distributors have a mark but I don't know what
the Chrysler one has. Once you have the timing statically checked by aligning
the crank mark and the rotor you'll know that the basic timing looks OK.

If the static timing looks OK and the plugs are wet then it could be a spark
issue. If the plugs are dry then you may have clogged injectors. This can happen.
It's really not too bad to check them for spraying but it is highly dangerous
when you work with gas that is spraying under high pressure. You have to jumper
the fuel pumps to run and lift the air flow plate while having the removed injectors spraying into a clear gasoline safe container. You are doing this to see if the spray pattern is any good or if they are clogged. A Haynes or Bentley manual will show you how to do this.

I notice you say you jumpered the pumps to run but did you crank the car then?
If it has a bad fuel pump relay or a bad fuse connection to the relay jumpering
the pumps and trying to start should run the car. Also fuse 13 provided power
to the fuel pump relay to turn on. Make sure that is a clean nice connection
on that fuse. Wish you well.
Dave 82 242ti 277k mi.

I've got the car started. No broken timing belt, thank god... had a leak on the inlet side of the fuel filter, and the injectors where clogged witch gunk. but still I've got to pump the gas pedal to get it to start and I've got to keep giving it gas to keep it idling for the first minute or so. I've driven it around the block and it seems like it is starving for gas, I'll give it gas and get no response from the engine. The tempature gauge doesn't seem to be working, does the car use a seperate sensor for the gauge and the fuel injection? I know there is some kinda temp sensor behind the distrubtor. I know I need new injector seals becasue I reused the old ones and the two lines from the charcoal canister are cracked pretty badly, but could those make it stall like that? thanks for any help. Adam.

I think I've narrowed it down to the in tank pump. the fuel pump has become increasingly noisy and when the fuel pump relay is jumped and I pull the fuel pump fuse I can't hear the intank pump. Are hard starts and bucking during acceleration common with a bad intank pump? Thanks for any help. Adam.

HI DAVE,

Sounds like our friend has a broken timing belt.

Chrysler cap, at least an "OEM" (made in Italia) one from euro. parts store, has "1" stamped on the tower for no. 1 cyl. as helper mark.

Thanks for your help on getting g.friend's 81 244 going, car would barely run cuz I'd mixed PCV plumbing w/idle bypass plumbing. Plus the p.o. had disconnected the lambda sond and there were several vac. leaks.

Haynes "fuel injection" manual and more patient reading of H 240 manual was able to get me over my fear of the system.

Is it normal to have to hold down accel. bout 1/2 way to get a k jet car to start? When cold. My '83 w/LH starts w/ turn of a key, no touchie gas pedal, cold or hot.

The '81 needs other stuff I can handle. Am in no rush, g'fiend has a decent running '91 Toyota w/ 115k that is gonna need a timing belt. Is a Celica, 1.6L 4 cyl. 16 VALVE (4A-FE). Gurus have told me this is NOT an interference-type engine, we can let the belt break. I know I can let it happen on our 240s, it's happened to me twice over the yrs.

No exp. at all w/anything >8 valves, my intuition tells me w/ two camshafts and all those valves, there's potential for damage if stuff gets out of time. Ignorance is not bliss in this case. Is it?

mucho obligado,

Frank Richards
'83 245DL >165k no odo or speedo, used to care but things have changed