L-jet help!, testing ECU Options

[eg914]

Is there anyone in the Sacramento, CA area with a running L-jet car? Are you willing to plug my ECU into your car to see if it works? I have a '74 with a pukegressive carb, and a box of L-jet parts. I think I have everything but the fuel pump, but I don't know why the PO removed the FI for the carb. I would hate to install everything only to find that the ECU was bad. Let me know if you can help. I live in Elk Grove, and work in Rancho Cordova.

Thanks

[lapuwali]

The chances the ECU is bad are almost nil. It's much more likely the PO simply switched because he couldn't "tune" the EFI (no need to, but some people never learn, or because he blamed some other problem on the EFI, or he mistakenly thought he'd get more power.

The most common failures on L-Jet are wiring related, followed by one of the temp sensors, followed by fuel pump failure. Actually, the No. 1 problem is a misinformed owner messing with things they don't understand, and doing things like opening the air meter to "recalibrate" it. Way down the list are things like ECU or injector failure, which is usually the first place most people look for failures.

You can test the fuel pump easily by (briefly!) connecting it to power and see if it makes noise. Don't leave it connected too long w/o fuel running through it. There are published specs on what the temp sensors should read using an ohmmeter (Google). Wiring just requires careful checking for broken or corroded connections.

If the top has been taken off the air meter (look for marks on the screws), be suspicious, and figure a PO messed with it, and most likely didn't do it any good. If it's still sealed, use it.