Reviving the herd, Or, "How to lose money and friends and anger the wife" Options

[paxton]

See my first post:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=243052

I won't clutter up the board with a bunch of threads, so I'll contain my questions to this one.

First up is the green machine. Kind of more like sunflower than green, but I digress. The green machine has no battery. It will not start, obviously.

But first a little story. For the past few days, the keys for the green machine have been missing. I have a devious little boy who likes to grab things and put them away in his many toy boxes/behind the couch/underneath things I didn't know there was an underneath to. I also just sold an old 412 and thought maybe I left them in there for some odd reason. I had turned the house and the garage upside down. No keys.

I gather the family (which includes 3 older kids who always want money) and I said whoever finds the keys in this house will get $50. They never worked so hard. My wife wanted money to (surprise!) so she was in on the hunt too.

On a whim, my wife went out to the car and looked in the ignition. Silly woman. That car doesn't even have a battery in it. Why would you look in... "I found them!" she yelled. What? You found the keys? IN THE IGNITION????

Of course they would be in the ignition of a non-running car that doesn't have a battery. Of course... Then I remembered: I sold the 412 and moved the green machine in its place. I had to turn the key to keep the steering wheel from locking.

So I'm the idiot and I'm out $50.

Back to the car.

The previous owner told me it will start (and run) if you use some starting fluid. If you turn the engine off, it will not start again, until you use starting fluid.

My plan is to drain the gas, refuel, replace plugs, wires, and cap (at least), and then check each of the injectors. Change oil and new filter. Any other guidance?

[BeatNavy]

The previous owner told me it will start (and run) if you use some starting fluid. If you turn the engine off, it will not start again, until you use starting fluid.

My plan is to drain the gas, refuel, replace plugs, wires, and cap (at least), and then check each of the injectors. Change oil and new filter. Any other guidance?

Good story.

Can you tell us more about this car? What year, engine, whether it's been sitting idle for period of time, etc.?

I'm assuming it may need new vacuum lines and then other basic tune-up requirements for these cars in this basic order: valve clearance, dwell, and timing.

Otherwise, more data required!

[paxton]

Can you tell us more about this car? What year, engine, whether it's been sitting idle for period of time, etc.?

I'm assuming it may need new vacuum lines and then other basic tune-up requirements for these cars in this basic order: valve clearance, dwell, and timing.

Otherwise, more data required!

Yes. It's the 73 1.7L. It has been sitting for quite a while.

None of what you said seems hard. I'm sure I'll foul up somewhere. This will be my first time working on a Type 4 engine above oil/plug changes etc.

[BeatNavy]

Yes. It's the 73 1.7L. It has been sitting for quite a while.

None of what you said seems hard. I'm sure I'll foul up somewhere. This will be my first time working on a Type 4 engine above oil/plug changes etc.

Yes, do look at the quality of the fuel, the fuel tank (rusty / tarred?), fuel lines, filter, etc. You know your fuel pump is working as is your ECU (you did say it's still injected, right?) and you obviously have spark. Getting the valves, dwell and timing adjusted require no investment (other than time) and are critical. Then assess where you are and plan on replacing vacuum hoses and fuel lines. You may want to get your injectors professionally cleaned (a good investment IMHO). Then assess where you are again and start looking at things that are problematic on a D-Jet for cleaning, refurbishment, or replacement:

AAR
MPS
Fuel Pressure
TPS
Dizzy

and the list goes on...