Here's the dirt -- my strange 88 240DL warm start problem was supposedly "repaired" by a new fuel regulator valve. Showed all the signs of vapor lock. Boy was I fooled. This hasn't happened since last summer. Car stranded me in the parking garage at work last week. Dug out my meter and checked the obvious. Fuses, ok. Underhood 25A fuse, OK. Fuse holders....they're ok. Cleaned fuse connections just to be sure....no go. Fuel relay...we have a problem. Solder connections in the relay are fine, voltage isn't being presented at the connector. The first relay that kicks in for the prepump isn't being told to do so. Fiddled with fuses more, tried jumping the connections on the relay sockey as per the Hanes books, still no start. Suddenly without warning the relay buzzes for about a half second, then everything is totally fine. I was in between tests at the time so I have no idea what would have woken the beast up. Car starts beautifully. Drove home. Tried to make it fail again. No problems. Still hasn't repeated the issue. It was after about an hour of fooling around with it that it decided to start. What exactly is the wiring between the prepump relay and the voltage source? Is it the ECU that activates this when the ignition is turned on? Is it another relay? Could I have a bad connector somewhere else?

Also, how long should it take for the car to die after fuse 4 and 6 are pulled? The relays didn't drop off when they were pulled out once running. Do I have a factory wiring goof? Of course, the 25A underhood relay kills it immediately!

Thanks!
Mike C