| Author |
Message |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Monday, July 02, 2001 - 6:51 am: | |
Thanks for everyones help. My problem is solved and fixed. I had two problems. 1-the carbon brush in my distributor cap was worn to a nub and wasn/t making contact with the rotor. The car still only ran on 6 cylinders. Then, 2- I switched coils from side to side and cleaned the terminals. That fixed the problem. Must have had a bad connection. Car runs like a champ again. Happy motoring!!!!!!!!!! |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 6:35 am: | |
Bret, you were right. My problem is back. I pull the car out of the garage and it started on 12 cylinders. I let it idle for 1-2 minutes, then I turned it off and washed the car. Then started it up again, and it was only running on 6 cylinders. Any thoughts or suggestions on what could have happened? |
BretM (Bretm)
| | Posted on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 5:59 pm: | |
I think it's premature. The cylinders are firing off of the alternator's charge. You could disconnect your battery after the car is started and not even know the difference. This seems like one of those intermittent Ferrari electrical problems which base when they will work on how many bumps in the road that you hit. There's still something shorting, look for bad contacts. |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 6:59 am: | |
All seems well with the Testarossa. I think my problem is solved but don't know why. I noticed my battery was getting weak when I would start the car to do some tests on the fuel system. I charged the battery up and now the car runs great!! Does anyone have any idea why this would make a difference in a bank of cylinders not working?? Or could I be premature in thinking my problem is solved? |
Steve Magnusson (91tr)
| | Posted on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 8:49 pm: | |
richard -- I must confess that when you first mentioned that you had a bank out and believed it was spark-related, my first thought was: "you should be so lucky". Do you know if you're getting too little fuel or excess fuel? Unfortunately, I'm not as familar with K-Jetronic (which I think is what your early Euro TR has -- and please correct me if this is not right) as I am with KE-Jetronic, but I think that you'll need to start checking the actual fuel pressures/deliveries at various places in the system if you want to dig deeper. Have you run the "fuel pump delivery test" or measured the primary fuel input pressure? |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 1:17 pm: | |
Unfortunately I wasn't able to solve the problem with a bank of cylinders not running. I'm getting spark and the fuel pump is running, but no combustion. Anyone have any other ideas for me to try trouble-shooting? Thanks. |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 6:58 am: | |
Thank you all for your suggestions to fix my problem. I was getting spark in the dead bank of cylinders with a strong smell of fuel in the exhaust. Ali Saleh, I liked your suggestion. I took the fuel distributor apart. The plunger wasn't stuck but there was a metal tab that keeps the plunger from dropping out was misaligned which was keeping the plunger from lowering it's full distance. This seems to have caused the fuel to flood that cylinder bank. I'll get it put back together tonight and see if my problem is cured. Thanks again |
ali saleh (Wolf)
| | Posted on Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 8:37 am: | |
Hi Richard,
i would like to add something to your problem.You know i have smiler problem on my 1984 testarossa and i solved the problem.One question.Do you have any fuel coming out of exhaust lift bank or right bank.If yes,then you have to overhaul the fuel distributor because it is stuck on fully open and causing a lot of fuel to enter the heads with out firing!!!!.
I hope this will help. |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Thursday, June 21, 2001 - 8:02 am: | |
I didn't get a chance to work on the Testarossa last night. I should be able to this evening. I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks again for the helpful ideas. |
Steve Magnusson (91tr)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 2:34 pm: | |
richard -- There's only 1 Ignition ECU, above the left rear wheel. |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 1:22 pm: | |
Steve and David, thanks for your help. I'll try those ideas tonight and let you know. Steve, concerning your "ps", there wasn't too much logic to pulling the relay other than to see if there was any difference in sounds from the fuel pump or the engine. Are there 2 ECU units or just 1 and where are they or it located?
Thanks again!! |
Steve Magnusson (91tr)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 11:49 am: | |
richard -- If the problem is spark related (and the spark plug and coil wires seem OK) then I'd start with these things:
1. remove, inspect, and reseat the 25-pin connector on the Ignition (not Injection) ECU and the 7-pin connectors on the Ign. Coil/Power Modules -- if all seems OK (e.g., no obvious corrosion, bent pins/sockets, etc.) and the dead bank problem still exists,
2. Try swapping the Ign Coil/Power Modules to see if the problem changes sides.
Let us know what you find...
PS I'm not sure that I follow the logic about removing the fuel pump relay from the "bad" side and no change confirming that the fuel supply is OK (if the pump itself was dead you'd get the same thing -- no change). If the repair manual you refer to is the WSM, see Fig D20. for a way to run the fuel pumps with the engine off to confirm they're working (and not making a lot of unusual racket) -- (with the key "off") if you remove the fuel pump relay and add a jumper wire on the relay socket from the vertical topmost "30" connection to the horizontal bottommost "87" connection, the fuel pump for that side should run. |
David Prall (Davidpra)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 10:49 am: | |
Spend $50 on an inductive pick-up type timing light --- this will be invaluable for determining which cylinders are not firing. You will need it to determine at which point in the HT circuit there is a fault.
Is it individual cylinders or the HT lead from the coil (for the whole bank)? If neither, start checking the LT circuit --- you'll need a volt / amp / continuity meter for this. Even without manuals and diagrams, etc. you can perform a little "comparative anatomy" using the properly functioning side to take baseline measurements and correlating these to the same measurements for the other side -- looking for discrepancies. |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 9:57 am: | |
It's an '85 euro model. I think it's spark related because there is a strong smell of gas comming out of the exhaust on that cylinder bank side that isn't firing. Also I tried interchanging known to be good relays for the fuel pump relay and that didn't help. Also, I removed the fuel pump relay from the down side while the car was idling and there was no change in the idle with the good side still running. I've got a repair manual for the car which has the wiring diagrams. Thanks for any help. |
Steve Magnusson (91tr)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 9:26 am: | |
richard -- can you elaborate on a few points:
1. What year/version?
2. How did you make the fuel-vs-spark diagnosis?
3. What are your resources (WSM, SPC, Wiring Diagram, Diagnosis Sheets, other?) |
richard allison (Rcalotus)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - 8:55 am: | |
My Testarossa was running on all 12 cylinders after start-up, then after approx 3 mins at idle with ambient temp. at 90 deg.F it lost power on 6 cylinders. I'm getting fuel in that bank, but apparently no spark. Any suggestions on how to proceed? I cleaned up that distributor cap and rotor but didn't make a difference. The problem seems to be temperature related. Problem started as an intermittant problem only showing up on 1 hour drives. The bank of cylinders would cut out for approx 1 min. then start to fire again. What and how do I check from here? Thanks for ANY suggestions! |