car won't start

[Stealth]

If it comes to changing the pump, maybe carnut can shed some light on the level of difficulty .. he dealt with these cars at the dealership.

i have changed fuel pumps but not on any Allante, yet .. KNOCK ON WOOD !

[dutch1944]

thanks stealth,
carnut has given me a lot of good advice, but i'll probably take the car to my mechanic friend. i'm 64 and have been around old cars all my life...used to have some 50's custom cars, but now with a bad back and no lift other than a floor jack, i'd rather let somebody else tackle the tank. my brother has a garage, but it's 200 miles away, and i'm sort of anxious to get it back on the road. the three days it ran, i really enjoyed it.
bud

[c5 rv]

Originally Posted by dutch1944

... i'm sort of anxious to get it back on the road. the three days it ran, i really enjoyed it.
bud

These cars are rather addictive, aren't they?

[dutch1944]

borrowed my friends fuel pressure gauge this morning and it has exactly 40 lbs pressure, so guess the pump is o.k.

i really haven't checked the fire yet, as i was going more for the fuel being the problem. if there's 40 lbs pressure at the valve, does that pretty much eliminate the fuel as the problem? as i stated before, the fueses are o.k. and connectors are clean.

i'll check for fire next.
thanks, bud

[dutch1944]

well, guess i should have checked for fire first. the way the car died on me, just thought it was fuel.

but, i have no fire to plugs. going to talk with my mechanic friend.....where should i start now?

thanks, bud

[c5 rv]

Maybe a grounding problem? I had a new 81 Pontiac Phoenix company car that lost the ground strap to the engine with 20 miles on the odo. It coasted to a stop and would not restart.

[Stealth]

Originally Posted by dutch1944

well, guess i should have checked for fire first. the way the car died on me, just thought it was fuel.

but, i have no fire to plugs. going to talk with my mechanic friend.....where should i start now?

thanks, bud

Originally Posted by dutch1944

thanks a million for all the good info carnut. one other thing i did that might have contributed to this, is i washed the engine at a car wash after i changed the oil/filter and had the tranny gasket replaced. i tried to keep the spray away from vital components(electrical)and did drive the car probably a hundred miles after that with no problem.
thanks again, really appreciated. have to go to a birthday party this evening, so will be tomorrow before i get back to it.
bud

at 40 psi, pump sounds fine to me. arent you glad you did the pressure test and not dropped the tank?

No fire to ANY of the plugs?

- doing a ground check is easy, Ohmmeter between engine block and car frame .. or .. you can put a jumper cable, block to frame and give it a crank. I would use the stud on top of the strut tower, the one your OWNER MANUAL tells you to use for battery jumping.

- coil .. most likely & really easy test .. do you have FIRE on the coil wire to the distributor?

- distributor assy and internals - next on the list .. if it has incoming fire, but nothing going out, you found it.

dont mess with the spark plugs or wires, unless the no fire is to one or two. if no fire to any, that is not the problem.

BTW, fuel pumps rarely just die without notice. they slowly fail and you see a tendency for longer and longer cranks to start the engine, or you hear the pump getting louder with time.

That engine wash continues to bother me .. one has to wonder where water got in ..
As a side note, I highly discourage pressure washing an Allante engine. Too many sensitive electric gismos.
Best bet is to spray it with Simple Green and rinse it down; not pressure wash it. Leave the pressure wash for the underside of built up gunk, but not the top side.



keep us posted ..



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[dutch1944]

[b]ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!
thanks for all the help guys. if i'd pulled the distributor cap first while at my girlfriends house, could have saved myself a $100 tow bill.
pulled the cap and the rotor had broken. i think one of the screws that holds it on had not been tighten. when i went to install the new one, the one screw would only go in about half way, and that's where the rotor was broken. i tapped it out good so the new screw would tighten good and it fired right up. idled rough for awhile, but think it had flooded a little with all the off/on i'd been doing.
really stupid of me for not checking the fire first, but because i was at my girlfriends house when this happened, was limited to the tools at hand.
thanks again to all who gave advice, now i can go enjoy this baby a little. great day for a drop top here in kansas city.
bud

[Stealth]

Originally Posted by dutch1944

[b]ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!
thanks for all the help guys. if i'd pulled the distributor cap first while at my girlfriends house, could have saved myself a $100 tow bill.
pulled the cap and the rotor had broken. i think one of the screws that holds it on had not been tighten. when i went to install the new one, the one screw would only go in about half way, and that's where the rotor was broken. i tapped it out good so the new screw would tighten good and it fired right up. idled rough for awhile, but think it had flooded a little with all the off/on i'd been doing.
really stupid of me for not checking the fire first, but because i was at my girlfriends house when this happened, was limited to the tools at hand.
thanks again to all who gave advice, now i can go enjoy this baby a little. great day for a drop top here in kansas city.
bud

hey .. understandable .. .. when I am with girl, messing with a damn Allante is the very last thing in my mind.
since the rotor was broke, there is a darn good chance the cap is cracked .. should replace it.

one more advice? no one should own an Allante unless you belong to the 100+ mile tow service AAA ...









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