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Joel,
What is the service history of the car? The EFI
cars are a bit fussy,
they require a good set of spark plugs, good air filter
element and
most important of all is that the air filter housing is firmly
fitted
and preferably sealed with some (non silicone) sealant.
If you
check out the IML archives you will find all the info you
need if you don't
find what you need ask, this is the point of the mailing
list after
all.
I have owned my 82 imp for 7-8 years now and find that differing
ambient
temperatures have the greatest effect on whether the engine will
start
right up or require more cranking, usually heat soak causes the
most
problems, this is where the car has been shut off for a short
period
after a longish run and a restart is attempted on a hot day, the
engine will
crank and crank but will refuse to start. My car has never had
this problem
but it is a regular EFI trait.
The importance of a firmly
fitted air filter cannot be understated, the
correct element must by fitted
centrally in the housing, the housing
MUST sit flat and firm on the HSA
(injection unit) and all the pipe
work must be fitted correctly, when
lowering the filter housing onto the HSA
you must ensure that the wiring loom
which runs front and back is clipped
to the housing and not trapped
underneath also make sure the little vac
hose is fitted to the snorkel and
the lambda sensor wire is reconnected.
Ensure that the PCV valve is working
(shake it if it rattles it's ok) and
firmly
fitted into the rocker cover
(if the rubber grommet is not holding the PCV
tight replace it) and that the
hose to the breather which sits in a grommet
on the opposite valve cover to
the PCV is fitted properly.
The above may sound like a lot but it only
takes a few minutes to check,
if you do not have the correct Chryler service
manuals you should as they
are the essential to an easy life.
What you
will find from reading the IML and the service manual is that
if
the
engine is flooded wide open throttle (WOT) while cranking will stop
fuel
delivery
completly so only use this if you think the engine is
flooded, i find with
my
car that a light throttle opening helps it to fire
up quickly.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Neil Thorpe London,
England 82 Imperial.
----- Original Message -----
From: Joel
Smith
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 6:40
PM
Subject: IML: 1983 Chrysler Imperial: starting problems
Hi
Guys,
I have a 1983 Chrysler Imperial that I purchased about a month ago.
It's in
pretty decent condition, but does have some rust in the rear left
& right
quarter panel & the bottom of the deck lid. It has 130,000
Miles on it (but
there is an asterix beside where it says that, don't know
what that means)
and gets from 15 - 20 US MPG on a tank.
Right from
the beginning, whenever I would start it, it would crank over a
bit more than
what I would expect a "normal" car to do, although I did hear
from a certain
mechanic that due to it's older computer, that could be
normal. It always
drives & idles nice though. Anyways, here's what happened:
I drove my car
to work friday morning (7:30 am), and it did it's usual
"longer than normal"
start, all was good. It sat all day at work in about
say 20 C (68 F)
temperature. I finished work around 5:00 pm and went to
start my car. The
first try I held the key in the "start" position for about
6 - 8 seconds, it
just cranked, didn't fire once. This was kind of
surprising, as it had never
done this before. So I tried it again, nothing.
After that, i tried pumping
the gas pedal (I usually NEVER touch the gas
pedal at all before or during
starting) while I was cranking it, it actually
fired one or two times but
didn't start. Next, I pulled off the air cleaner
cover, & I could smell
gas( but it didn't appear flooded), so I left the
cover off for a minute or
two, then put it back on and tried again. Nothing.
So after that I went
back inside to where I work & called AMA to send over a
tow truck. Next (
about 30 mins had passed since I had last tried starting
the car) I went
outside again to see if I could start the car. I put the key
in and cranked
it...it didn't fire for a sec or two, but then caught a few
times &
started. For the first few seconds it ran rough, like it had too
much / too
little fuel, but after that it smoothed out and idled like it has
always had
before (it idles nice btw). So now i'm a little scared about
something like
this happening again (i've been driving it for about 4 days
since then and
it's always started). Now would any of you guys have any idea
what the
problem could be and what I can do to fix it? I'm also interested
in why it
seems to need a few excessive cranks to start.
Oh, and you can check out
pictures of my car here:
http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith
Thanks
in advance.
Joel Smith
Edmonton, Alberta.
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