The very first thing to check is that air cleaner lid. It must be clamped
down with the circumferential ring clamp, and screwed tight with the wing
nut, and it must have a good gasket. Make extra sure that none of the
harness wires have crept in under the lid and deformed the gasket.
If it is sealed well, then take a look for any other air leaks. Any air
getting into the intake manifold, through whatever path, which has not
passed through the air flow sensor (the "snorkel" that sticks out the left
front of the air cleaner) will make the car do the "start -then stall" bit.
If this is what your car is doing, that is the area to look.
On the other hand, if you just crank and it does not even momentarily start,
you have a different problem. Try cycling the key all the way to off,
then back to on a few times - you should hear a brief noise from under the
hood, and you may hear another noise from the gas tank each time you do
this. Try this a few times, then try to start the car. If it starts right
up then, you may just have to get used to doing this dance each time it acts
up on you.
Another diagnostic trick is to carry a very small amount of gas with you -
only about 2 ounces is all you need. When the car won't start, loosen the
wing nut momentarily on the top of the air cleaner, put about 1 ounce of gas
in the depression there, re-tighten the air cleaner nut, and immediately
start the car. If this always starts it, we know that the starting funnies
are a lack of fuel problem. Before I write the whole book on this, let's
hear what you can learn about this before wasting everyone's time here.
When these cars are right, they will start immediately, in any weather, no
matter how long they have been sitting - we just need to get it back into
that condition.
You should pay attention to what makes it act up. It is useful to know how
long since it was last driven, what is the temperature outside, etc. Also,
do you have the service history on it? How long since the fuel filters
have been replaced - how about ignition parts - how about the oxygen
sensor? Does the car still have the factory exhaust system on it? How many
miles on the engine?
Dick Benjamin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob P" <fristpenny@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 8:47 AM
Subject: IML: My new '82
> I just got my "new" '82 Imperial home. I have a hard starting problem.
> Seems that you have to crank it over a bunch of times an it will just
> randomly start. The car is stone stock efi as far as I can tell. What are
> the first things to check? I basically bought the car without looking at
it
> for the seats. I'm afraid to even take the air cleaner top off because I
> know how finicky these things can be.
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