'89 L Series won't start after running nicely... HELP!

[Tophat]

Hey all,
So my '89 L Series won't start now. This is particularly frustrating given that she started no worries after pulling the engine apart and re-gasketting her.

She last ran about a week and a half ago, with no noticable problems.

We've spent the last three days trying to wrap our heads around the problem, with no love.

She will turn over till the battery's flat. No problems in the sound of the starter motor.
Fuel pump has been replaced, and works.
Fuel filter seems fine.
'Start ya bastard' *(basically spray-in ether) hasn't helped.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Bishop

[Dee2]

You need spark, air, compression and fuel to start the engine.

--you have fuel, do you have the other three ?

--if you have the other three, check for broken timing belts

Edited July 9, 2016 by Dee2

[Tophat]

Thanks for the reply bro!

We tested two of the plugs for spark last night, and they sparked. We didn't test the other two as they're a bitch to get to and we checked the plugs when re building the engine, they looked fine and as I said, she ran fine a week and a half ago when I last took her out.

Air - Not sure how to test for this, but we have the filter top off so it should be getting plenty of air, right? If not, how should we check for air?

Compression - I understand there's a compression gauge that one can use to test compression, but we don't have access to one at the moment. Is there a no-tool test that can be done? I came across something about pulling a plug and putting your thumb over the hole then cranking the engine - can you give any more detail on this?

Timing belts - I would be very surprised if the timing belts were broken. They were in great condition when we redid the engine, and the flywheel is turning when we turn the engine.


Mate has just pointed out that we had pretty much no fuel in the tank after the last drive. Not enough to affect the engine, there were no misses or anything like that. The fuel filter and pump still had fuel in them after that last drive.
We also put in an additional 10 litres of fuel when she first didn't start, as that was our first thought.

Cheers,
Bishop

[Dee2]

I'm not aware of any no-tool compression test.

Air can be checked by the cleanliness of the air filter-found mine soaked in oil one time.

You know how to check for spark - that's good

Timing belts should have an inspection port to verify condition

Also, check the distributor for any problems

 

Just because it happened to me one time - rap on the fuel pump with the handle of a screw driver a few times and see if it makes any difference - may take more than one try.

[Tophat]

Aight,
Air filter's clean enough, though I've noticed some oil in the air intake area and on the metal bottom of the fuel filter. Is that normal? I've noticed it in most of the wrecker cars I've come across so haven't thought much of it. Filter is removed from the engine at the moment, by the way, so she definitely has air.

Checked the dizzy earlier on, couldn't spot anything glaringly obviously wrong. What should I be looking for, damage-wise?

Not too keen to poke the fuel pump at the moment as it was installed last night, and worked when we tested it... so I'm pretty sure it's alright


Also,
Put in an extra 8L of 98 octane fuel (BP Ultimate, the fancy stuff haha) to the tank, left the tank cap off, and she started up, ran rough as guts for about 2-3 seconds, then stalled.
Later, we put a little fuel directly into the carb (like, a teaspoon's worth) and she ran again for 2-3 sec, before stalling. I noticed exhaust coming out the back, which is good. Smoke was kinda white, but I'm not concerned about that. Clearing out a bit of oil's fine.

Presently we suspect flooding (which is good!)
Just letting the battery re-charge, and the potential flooding evaporate.

That she's run a bit tells us the timing belts are good.

Thinking it might just be air working its way through and out the fuel lines. Thoughts?

Cheers, and thanks a bunch!
Bishop

[Dee2]

Well that's a big step in the right direction. 

 

Apparently the problem is fuel related so at least it's narrowed down to that.  I would not eliminate the fuel pump, yet.  But let it clear it's throat and try again later.  If the tank ran low before some junk may have clogged the system but it may work it's way through.

 

If it's too dirty you may have to replace the fuel filter. 

 

good luck.

[Tophat]

So,
After getting a carburetor and general car wizard to have a look at her and help out yesterday, she's running again. (Well, hopefully Haven't started her up yet this morning but she did about 200km yesterday )

What we did:

First, Mr. Wizard tried putting a little fuel directly into the carb again. No love.

 

Then, Mr. Wizard towed the old girl out onto the road and up and down the street a bit, to try and roll start her. She turned over, and started running whilst she was rolling for a bit, then died when we stopped. No matter what I did with the throttle, she died.

 

Tried tow - starting again, and she started up and ran

Idle was pretty rough, but sustained.
We then turned her off. A minute or two later, tried to start her with the ignition, no love. Back to towing. Started under tow no worries.

Then, we tried turning her off, then back on after 5 or so seconds. It worked, but then still rough. Played around with the vaccum hoses a bit (some of them were not plugged in) and then moved the distributor a bit. I say we, but I mean Mr. Wizard, because as soon as the dizzy was moved it started running much smoother.

So, then off to a wreckers to get a part I'd accidentally snapped (one of the vacuum hose connectors). Car was running at about 80%. There was still some missing, and other roughness particularly under load, but much better than when it was first running properly (call that 20%).

After installing the newish vacuum connector, she started running poorly again. Well enough to get us the 20 odd km to Mr. Wizard's house, but at say 50%. Missing under load, general roughness... it was a very noticable change from the 80% we had on the 50km run to the wreckers.

So, now we're at Mr. Wizard's workshop house
Bust out the timing light. Get her timed properly. Still missing.
Scratch our heads and our arses for a bit. Still missing.

FINALLY! we notice that one of the spark plug leads is a bit odd. The L shaped connector, where it plugs into the distributor. The actual metal connector part (inside the rubber covering) had ended up in the long part of the L, so it didn't make it past the elbow and properly into the dizzy. So, there wasn't a proper connection occuring there. Fix that, and figure we might as well check the others. I'm not sure if it's how I was pulling them off the dizzy, or if they really were all the same, but each time I had to push the lead through the end rubber bit a bit to make sure the lead would properly plug into the dizzy.

Start her up, she purrs. 99%

So I dunno, maybe the spark was arcing from the dizzy to the lead then making the plug spark, but sometimes it couldn't jump the gap in the dizzy so the engine missed, or maybe it was just that one of them was particularly bad. Either way, Mr. Wizard made the dry comment to me that "Well, we spend all day trying to fix that," (referring to the spark plug leads.) "but don't think about it like that! That's cars!" Then he smiled...

Yep!
Hope this helps someone at some point, now it's off to get the mud cleaned off her and take her for a roadworthy!

Peace all <3