a week and a half ago i was replacing the timing belt and doing a valve job - all as routine maintenance
after i was done she started up fine, so i turned it off, hooked up the timing light and restarted - the timing was still perfect, so, while it was running i pulled off the #1 wire from dist to unhook the timing light - before i could get the #1 wire back on distributor i heard 3 clicks (kinda sounded like arcs) from area of coil, but it still ran
i shut it off to go get cleaned up, but remembered i needed to hook the cruise cable back up and had dropped the screw on the ground, was gonna start-up to move car and find screw - NO START
i replaced the coil with a new one - NO START
i checked for spark and saw that as i turned the car over the spark looked thin and medium orange (to me, but i dont know what it should look like either) but as i let go of the starter there was a bright spark right at the end, when not actually cranking
As i was double-checked the timing belt locations and tensioner by bumping the engine over to get the cam to its mark when it started up - weird - i thought maybe i had fried the coil when doing my timing light befuddlery - they're only $18 so i thought how could it hurt -
i also checked my plug wires and found the coil wire had about 13000 ohms resistance - so i also got new coil wires -
now at this point i could get the car to start by bumping the ignition switch and after i replaced the wires it would start while it was cranking - so i thought i was in the clear - it started while cranking and ran fine a few more times that afternoon & evening - the next morning i had to bump the ignition switch because it would not start while cranking - after it started and ran for a few seconds i shut it off and then it started back up while cranking - at noon the car started and ran fine
i got out my multimeter and found same 13.8 volts at battery and alternator while running, and a non-running voltage of 12.7 Volts - under full load the alternator was putting out about 13.2volts
at 5pm after work it went about a block and died twice, but restarted and i was able to get it back to work
i double checked for spark - fine, no start
went to fuel pump relay and swapped it out with my spare - started right up and ran fine - started a few times in fact
drove 10 miles to a friend's workplace and resoldered my swapped out relay
got back in the car drove a mile and it died - lights only came on dash as it got close to a stop
cranked over fine
i jumpered #4 & #6 fuse but no start - couldn't check for fuel pump sound because i was on interstate near downtown LR - but i noticed that the fuel pump relay was clicking and clacking open & shut, regardless of which relay i used
i bought a new fuel pump relay ($46 with tax) from local mechanic
still no start
towed it in to local mechanic a few days ago
i talked to mechanic and he said he looked at it and thinks it is the fuel-injection ECU (the bosch unit at passenger kick panel)
he said i have bosch ECU MODEL# 0 280 000 511
he said i am into about $90 of labor right now
he couldn't locate an ECU but i have found a few on Ebay

i usually do everything myself, but am all knuckles when it comes to fully understanding electricity - i learned a lot in the past week from re-reading through the Bentley book

i did check all of the ignition trouble-shooting Bentley describes but haven't had any luck

i have been told ECUs don't generally go bad and that the mechanic i am using may not be the best, he is getting long in the tooth and may be looking for the quickest way out
i did not check the AMM in limp-mode, but will do so in the morning when i go by mechanic's place to get my tools and check ECU numbers
do other ECUs interchange with a 511?
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rich - 85 244 286k