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No doubt this was rare but it happened last week, so it could again. Part of it at least.
Battery kept losing charge. Alternator checked OK. Fat sparks when taking Battery Neg cable off. Ammeter between neg cable and terminal showed 4.25 amps staedy drain. Cold Start Valve(?) was hissing, or something in that area. Tried to pull connector from CSV. Pulled Brake Booster Vacuum hose at intake for access. LIGHTBULB!
Forget CSV--Go to the source, pull FI Relay. Battery drain stops. Swap in a spare FI Relay (used, of course). Turn the key. Car starts. Car dies. Starts. Dies. etc. etc. Desperation & flop sweat. Acts like bad AMM. But now? Out of the blue? Disconnect AMM.
Car starts. Car runs! WTF! AMM must be bad too! Then I spot the booster hose still off from 2 paragraphs ago. I blush and hook it (and AMM) back up. Car starts and runs. All's well again.
Autopsy on FI Relay found much rust on fuel armature pivot, and armature spring missing. (Probably loose and fell out when cover was removed.) Enough erroneous contact to leak low current voltage to Fuel Pumps, and O2 Sensor heater. Still don't know what the hissing was (leaky CSV?). Doubt pumps would run. Maybe a little?
So the FI Relay diddled the battery, but car was running OK.
And big shot of Unmeasured Air made the AMM look sick.
And me look stupid. End of story. For now.
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Bruce Young, 940-NA, 240s galore (one V8 just sold), '73 142, '71 144 (ex circle track car in CT), '67 144 (new), 122 '63 to '67
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