Background: 87 3.2 Mondial Cab had a major service last summer, and until now, has run many miles without incident. Current: Drove the car last weekend, and everything was cool. As usual, the car ran well, and everything worked.....went out this evening, and the car won't start. The battery is strong, it turns over well, but it won't fire. Nothing has been done / nothing has changed since last week, so I'm not sure where would be the best place to start.....It "feels" electrical to me, but I just wanted to know if any of you had any suggestions on which "usual suspects" I should check. AFAIK, it has the original fuse box... Hopefully, some of you will know this as a common problem and can offer a simple solution. As any F car owner can appreciate, I'm trying to keep my fear level to a minimum as I start considering what all this could be (i.e., start thinking what something minor could cost) Thanks for any help
Did you check your fuel pump circuit fuse? I'm not sure about Mondials but if they're anything like 308s they have a weak spot in their fuse blocks at the fuel pump circuit. Otherwise, at least start by checking for spark by pulling a plug wire and a plug, reconnect the wire to the plug and hold it to a ground (use good insulated pliers!) while an assistant cranks the car over. Sounds to me though like you have a fuel prob. Cheers, AAron
Pull the blue plug off the fuel distributor. This will bypass the fuel pump safety cutoff and allow the fuel pump to run whenever the key is in the "on" position. See if you hear the pump running. If not, it could be the fuse, one of the relays, or something else in the wiring. Mine did something similar and it turned out to be the fuel pump connector going to the fuse box that had gotten warm and stopped making good contact. Tapping on the fuse block got the pump running long enough for me to get home, identify the problem, and fix it.
Well, I wasn't sure how the blue plug actually pulled off of the fuel distibutor, and I didn't want to yank on it in fear of breaking it, but your thoughts about it being electrical as it applied to fuel delivery made sense. Accordingly, and since I haven't yet replaced any of my original, metal-cased relays, I simply tapped lightly on all of them....voila, she fired right up.......Of course, this only proves that I'm in bad need of replacing fuses and relays and generally inspecting and cleaning up the electrical system on this car. I've read the sticky post on replacing all of the relays, and I would also replace all of the fuses at the same time, but does anyone have suggestions on what else I could (should) do as a prophylactic measure against future electrical gremlins? Are the fuse boxes fragile (i.e., am I likely to cause additional problems by changing the relays / fuses?) The sticky thread makes reference to performing electrical upgrades, but it doesn't go into detail about what all should be done (and it really references 308's/328's and not Mondials specifically).....Any suggestions would be quite helpful. Thanks!
I had the same thing happen to my 1981 308 once. It was simply the Fuel Pump Relay. On my car, they are behind a cover on the Passenger side dash. On your Mondial, I'm not sure. But maybe in the front hood section of the Car. Check your Manual. Also,check to see exactly which one is the Fuel Pump Relay. Anyway, what I did was to simply pull out the Relay, which looks like a small steel or black plastic Square. Gently tap it a few times on a hard surface, then put it back in and seee if the Car fires up. If it does, then you will Know that the Relay is the problem. But, get a new one as soon as possible. Do not rely on it, or that if you tap it again, it will work. It did for me, so I just went out and got a new one. And haven't had a problem like that since. If it doesn't work, that does not totally exclude the Fuel Pump Relay. But, getting a replacement one would be the next step that I would take. Least expensive, to start out with, and, simplest. Then, if that still doesn't work, you will have to dig further into it....But, at least you'll know that you have a new relay, and it shouldn't be a problem for you ever. Seeing as the one that is in your car now is almost 20 years old. Good Luck!
