I recently took advantage of an opportunity to purchase an 86 244 at a give away price. The car was at a "professional" garage after being towed there in a no start condition. Diagnosed as in need of "two fuelpumps" I dragged it home. Found that the mainpump was running. In the course of chasing the problem I tried some starting fluid but it would not fire. I removed the plugs and found that they would fire when laid on the cam cover. Compression test showed 150+ on all cylinders. Put in a new set of plugs and the car started up and runs fine.

The plugs that were in the car were a set of 4 prong Bosch Platinums. I have used regular Bosch Platinums in my cars and like them very much. Other than showing a rich condition these looked fine but apparently could not fire when subjected to compression. Just because a plug will work when removed and grounded doesn't mean it will spark and ignite the mixture under compression.

Randy