1984 245 Wagon. Automatic trans. 180 K. Ran excellent.

Bought car about one month ago and drove home just fine. It was sitting for a year before. Drove home about 60 miles on very low gas. Made it home, barely.

Over the course of the month, car has been parked as I have been doing maintenance. Dropped oil pan, changed oil pan gasket, transmission pan gasket, valve cover gasket, new bosch spark plugs (forgot to gap), did not change wires. Removed and cleaned flame trap and put it back on. Put everything back together, but now the car won't start.

It cranks but won't start. Sounds like it is starving for gas. Put 2 gallons of gas in the car, still won't start. I imagine the fuel pump/filter/relay/ everything has never been changed ever.

What shall I do?
How do I check if the fuel pump or pumps are good?
Could it be because the spark plugs were not gapped?
should i just spend the money and buy both new fuel pumps, and relay, and filter?

thanks guys

 

No do not buy new parts until you test first. Pull all plugs and gap correctly first .28 inches. Not likely your problem unless they are WAY off but might as well start with what you know is bad. You can also see if they are flooded or even firing and even do a compression check at this point if you want to make sure you have good compression on all cylinders and to rule out a broken timing belt. Make sure you have the firing order correct 1-3-4-2. Also, have you tested all your fuses? Have you tested for spark? If not check all fuses and for spark first. Also make sure you check the 25amp fuse in the engine compartment. It is located on the driver side should be in a white holster up against or near the side of the inner fender. Make sure that fuse is good and the small wire going to the positive battery post is connected with a tight and clean connection. If all that is good and you have spark then we know it's a fuel problem. Under the passenger knee bolster you will find 2 square metal relays. Make sure the relays are clicking when you turn the key to the on position. Hold them in your hand and turn the key to on...do they click? Try and start car do they click again? If not you have a bad fuel pump relay. If both click as they should and car still not starting turn key to on position and feel fuel pump with your hand can you feel it running? If so, you could have a bad ignition module or pins can be loose. Your module is on passenger side in engine compartment front of car big black module with a vacuum and electrical connection. Sometimes if your plug is loose it will cause symptoms of start, no start...spark, no spark, weak spark, intermittent spark...you get the point. Unplug it and replug try again...if car starts you will either need to buy the metal sleeves to put over the male connectors on the module or you can carefully tighten the female connectors on the harness. If all else fails and everything tests good you want to test your MAF sensor...84 MAF sensors are notorious for going bad...point being you have A LOT of testing to do before you can start throwing parts at her...check your work too and make sure you didn't loosen a main ground, unplug anything or disturb an already bad wire harness. 84 is also notorius for bad wire harness. Good luck and keep us up to date...hard to diagnose wiyhout actually seeing car...can only advise you to get a Bentley manual some tools and test, test, test...never just pull, replace , pray...won't get you far and will cost you a lot of money and frustration.

 

Wow. Sat for a year (at least) and then you drove it 60 miles without adding gasoline? And now it won't start and sounds as if it is starving for gas...hmmm. Well, before you go much further into the fuel system check the timing belt. Remove the oil filler cap and have someone attempt to start the engine...if the belt is intact, you will see the cam shaft merrily turning away...if you see no motion...the problem is a broken belt.
As for fuel issues, please use the search function and see what you come up with. Basically, what you did driving home is a no-no with any car that has sat up for a year, let alone a 25+ year old car. Crap in the tank, rust, varnish all got sucked into the intank lift pump sock, into the under car inline pump and on into the fuel filter under the hood. Then the varnish portion of the old gas made it into the fuel injectors. At the very least, you should have filled the tank with fresh gasoline to dilute the nasty stale gasoline.
So...if it were me, I'd pull the hose coming from the gas tank to the under car pump. With a catch pan, switch the key on and check the flow coming from the tank. Even though it is a low pressure, low volume pump, it should still be an impressive flow. Then do the same to the under car tank. Then, at the under hood filter and finally at the return line of the fuel rail. Somewhere along the line you should find a fuel blockage.
Way too early to be thinking about replacing pumps...see what sort of crap is in and coming out of, the gas tank first.

 

You might just have difficulty starting the car because you worked on it and replaced/cleaned some things. I know I had to clean the spark plugs a few times after working on the car because they were flooded with gasoline. Might be your problem like volvoguy2323 said, especially with fouled gas in the tank and incorrect gapping. A quick plug cleaning and gapping might fire her up, but leave other problems to haunt you later, so take the additional advise of these guys above me.

 

Im having that problem as well. 3 days ago it took 3 tries to get it to turn over. Now it wont turn over at all. Do you think that the flooding rains that we've had on the east coast for the past week couldve dampened the distributer cap or plugs?

 

I have a 1984 245. It has the two square fuel pump relays. However, only one clicks and if I swap them, the same side clicks. I can jump the main fuel relay and I hear the fuel pump go, but the engine still will not start.

If I spray starter fluid into the air intake, the engine will start and run as long as I spray the fluid. This makes me believe the injectors are not firing fuel into the engine, but the spark plugs are firing.

What would keep the injectors from firing? This car has me baffled.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Olive