back on road

Hi, my '79 400 had been stored for some months without any attempt to start the engine. Now, the car is taken care of and it turns out it does not start, neither of the electric fuel pump does work.
Did this happen to any of you ? Thanks in advance.

PS : I went shopping and maybe this experience can be useful to someone :
Plug Champion N6YC : 6$
KNECHT fuel filter 07638232 (KL 5) : 30$ each (there are 2 filters)€
FRAM oil filter - PH8A : 12$ each
Green air filter : 45 $ each

Olivier

 

Hi Ross, thanks a lot. My option was to say ' one fuse can be wrong, but the probability of having two fuses wrong at the same time was low', but you're right, first the fuses, then further diagnosis. My fear is to have something wrong into this black box under the passenger feet. Another owner told me this was a kind of central brain, managing many functions like 'the engine is cold, enrich fuel input and so on ...' He sent himself back to Maranello-historical depart- to have the connections renewed.

Thanks a lot for your piece of advice regarding the filters.

 

Hi John, sorry about it : I realize I have omitted the 'i' : the car is a 400i.
Thanks for your answer. I am going to check the connections tomorrow right on the car.
Olivier

 

Art, many thanks, I am going to consider the NGK -Iridium or not- plugs. I don't know whether you have this in the Us. In Europe, there is no longer leaded fuel in the stations. So a sort of add-on can be bought, which can be mixed with unleaded fuel everytime you fill up the tank.
If you still have the 330 I saw in your profile, this is a very nice car. There is a belgian 330 owner on a european forum, same car as yours I think. I can try to retrieve this contact if you want.

 

Under the passenger carpet : this box, see
<a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto048.jpg target=new>Image 1</a><br>
That's what I suspected to be a black box but I was wrong. You're right Ashman.

The pump relays, left and right sides are separate, see <a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto049.jpg target=new>Image 2</a><br>I suppose this illustrates what Ross was saying, thanks Ross.

One out of the two fuel pumps. <a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto050.jpg target=new>Image 3</a>
First test : electricity ? Result : nothing. Action : overhaul the fuses, the relays, the wire connections. Electricity ok.
Second test : basically an audio test. There is no sound. Pumps seem to be stuck.
Action : take the pumps out. Attempt to get the right. One is ok, the other one works, but too softly.
Ordered a new Bosch fuel pump.
<a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto052.jpg target=new>Image 3 : the pump in her glory</a><br>


Another problem area. This already happened once : the arrow shows the area where there is a mechanism that was stuck.
<a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto054.jpg target=new>Image 4</a><br>

The car/1
<a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto051.jpg target=new>Image 5</a><br>
The car/2
<a href=http://www.telip.com/f/wPhoto053.jpg target=new>Image 6</a>

So far, we identified three problems on this car that was stored too long : fuses/relays connection, as advised in this topics, stuck fuel pumps, stuck thing in the mixture mecanism. Maybe there are other problems, the engine does not start at this time, waiting for the fuel pump to delivered. Thanks for your advices.

 

Sure, as soon as I come back to the place where the car is being maintained, I'll get this info and send it on the forum. I was there during the phone call to the Bosch part reseller : the mechanic read the number stamped on the device, the answer went instantaneously : yes we keep on providing this device, can be delivered within two days.
Olivier

 

Sure,
The logic was to follow murphy's law : everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
so, the fuel tank was emptied and filled with new gas.
fuel filters changed?
fuel pump : first test : is there power ? answer : some 0.something volts : not enough
connections cleared : power ok but not the right noise
unmount the pumps : one is eventually doing right but the other one is definitely not efficient enough (audio test only)
still in progress ...
olivier

 

Follow up.
As the new fuel pump has not been delivered yet, some experimentation :
Could the engine start with only one row of 6 cylinders ? (given the fact there is no fuel pump feeding the other row).
Yes, it can. The engine starts and runs. As one can guess, not perfectly but it runs.
Olivier

 

Hi, thanks for this information. It is to be taken into account when testing.
The second step of our fuel pump test was to unfit the pumps from the car and plug it to a power source. there was a very audible difference between the two of them. So we discarded the least noisy one.
With your piece of advice, it's a fact that there was no need to unfit the pumps. Thanks for your answer.
Olivier