Car sat for a while now won't start ? It tries..

[romeojett]

I got the fuel filter on correctly after someone swapped the lines not watching what there doing. Now I cranks over wants to start, I know its getting gas to the rail, but nothing. If I put some start fluid in I get it to run, then dies like no fuel. I have power at the injectors tested that with a light. Plugs are firing fine as well.

Any advice, could injectors be blocked or the fuel regulator froze ? It's sat before and never had any issues, when my friend put the fuel filter lines on in wrong place would gas trying to flow in the direction of the regulator mess it up, or if its froze up from sitting ?

[firebush357]

I am not sure about the regulator but I have had a set of injectors get gunked up from sitting for years. I had to take them out and pull the caps off and tap the needle on my vice to get them to unstick. You could hear them click but they wouldn't actually open. After tapping them on the vice I ran some carb cleaner through them and put the cap back on and they worked fine.

Did you use a Noid Light to test the power at the injectors or a test light? The injectors fire with a ground pulse from what I understand.

[romeojett]

Yeah, my dad had made his own noid light up for another car and we tried it, and it lights, so were getting power. looks like i'll pull them, there probably gunked up, some of the rebuild kits don't seem to badly priced.
thanks,

[WmWatt]

I don't have the fuel injected model but I think I would try fuel injector cleaner. If it's anything like carburettor cleaner it comes in a spray can and dissolves carbon deposits..

[romeojett]

So I got injectors out, my dad tested them with a 9volt to see if they were opening and closing, three where gunked up after cleaning them they triggered fine, seal kit I got had wrong pintel caps for some reason dual hole caps came with the kit, mine were single so I was able to clean them so I will re-use caps. The fuel pressure regulator was jammed up as well, or so my dad said, with some old school way he knows to test it. So tomorrow I will put the cleaned injectors back together, and a new pressure regulator, and should have fire in the hole. and she will live again.. Hopefully.

[firebush357]

Awesome. Good Luck with it

[harpon]

This discussion will help me- I may finally be able to give my fuel delivery issue some more attention this week. In fact I realize that my problems started abruptly some time after I put a new fuel filter on- apparently BACKWARDS but Im not sure of the timing of how long before, because it has literally been a couple of years now. First I'll repeat a direct current test with the pump with the hose disconnected just above it- I did this once to make sure of continuity, and the pump spurted but seemed to not produce gas then at the disconnected filter- (It was then I discovered I had the filter backwards- several months ago now) So perhaps the fuel line is gummed, and with some luck, maybe not the injectors or rail- I'll get whatever carb cleaner I can into what I can-

Geez I'd like to get this going- and maybe even call in a pro before winter.

No, a backwards filter is trouble, because it is designed to hold pressure in the rail direction for the next start up- hopefully it didn't damage the regulator or injectors, but I have not the equipment to test the pressure. I may take the shrader core out and spray some distillate (pretty much all the same stuff I think) into that. I've run carb cleaner as much as I can for 40 years or so and have never had any problems with injectors or any gunking. And I put in doses when ever the car sits for any length of time, because gasoline evaporates, but leaves the gum behind, and distillate balances that back out and stabilizes the gas left.

[romeojett]

Thanks for all the feed back and help. I am back up and running, I got an injector rebuild kit , pentle caps were wrong, all though it said kit was for a 90, I have single hole tip, kit had dual hole tips, I was able to clean mine and use all the seals, cleaned everything up and went ahead and swapped a new regulator. adjusted idle and its up and running fine now. did some good ole yard driving as the brakes are a little squirrelly, ended up going around the block and down the road few times. Front struts have seen better years little bouncing but it brought back cruzin memories of my old yellow 91, before it was retired. I wont' drive it much until I go through the brakes to make it safe.

Changed ground wire on left engine bay and the battery one were frayed, once replaced, back to quick starts, and smooth purring. My dad can't believe how well it runs after all this time. He can't stop talking about it. I made a check list of parts for RockAuto for the brakes and wheel bearings, need to swap the front struts out as well. So make it stop safe and not bounce then I will go from there, the undercarriage has seen better years, so may need to weld in some patches. Over all its running, clutch may need some adjusting as well.

Here in Ohio, I use to run studded snows all the way around on my previous yellow 91 L, it tracked better than my Jeep liberty in the snow, I had that car for 13 years, all through college until Ohio rust got the best of it at the sway arm area, I was getting 43-44mpg and over 243K on it when I scabbed what parts I could for my blue one and sent it off to the grave yard. Wish I would of took more parts off of it, but at the time you could find these all over the bone yards, not so much anymore...……

[WmWatt]

Front wheel drive tracks better in snow. Pulls like a swimmer with engine weight over drive wheels. Nice.

[harpon]

In the Blizzard of '78, My VW Rabbit was the first car negotiating the deep snow of Bloomington IN. Not many front wheel drives at all back then. I did get stuck at The Hop before it was all over, when a quick temp drop locked my wheels in 6 or 8 inches of solid frozen water.

[romeojett]

Yeah, remember the winters of pushing snow out my steel wheels, couldn't run the studs on the aluminums, to much vibration. Just ordered a load of parts from RockAuto, I have to check the rear drums before I buy those, over all cost of parts are still low. Tires were new when I parked it but probably flat spots by now, those are regular 12's on this one, found tires at Walmart if I replace them, but I have a set of 13's on Mazda steel wheels, 175, 60, I can run if I need to from my yellow one I kept they are lower on tread, but would work through the fall.

[harpon]

The Rabbits had 13"x 155 tires, and those bit into snow great, without hydroplaning, and a fast roll that got 35 mpg 40 years ago.