Check the fuel relay, it's under the dash by the hood pull. A failure like this is what bought me an opportunity to witness one of the wildest car problems I'd ever seen.

I was looking at a purchasing a 1977 242, The owner said it needed a valve adjustment. The car would crank and not start, I had read about the problem at the time and I was sure it was the Fuel Pump Relay. I pulled it out and took it apart, cleaned the contacts but nothing happened, it still wouldn't start. The owner said that I would never drive it out of there.

I bridged power from the tailights, I could fire the pump by turning on the running lights. (Hey, it worked.)

It turned out that the relay really was defective, and the cleaning just wasn't good enough. After half an hour I fired it up, and the face of the man who was the owner turned to shock.

The valve adjustment was really a bolt in the combustion chamber.

Hey, what do you expect for a Chihuahua.