WOT: Mercedes K-Jetronic Help, Posting here because I know you guys know this stuff Options

[ThePaintedMan]

In an attempt to broaden my horizons as a diagnostician (and mostly because I need the money to keep the lights on), I'm helping a neighbor with his 1983 Mecedes 380SL. The car is a V8 with the Bosch K-Jetronic mechanical injection system, similar to the CIS on the 911.

I have studied the system to have a pretty good understanding of how it works, or at least the physics behind it. What I'm dealing with at the moment is a no-idle condition, both cold and hot, but it's far worse when cold. The neighbor claimed he can get it to run by dumping gas in the air sensor plate orifice for a few minutes and then if he jams a screw driver in the linkage, it'll idle (poorly). Above idle, it revs up and down pretty well.

Here's the data I have gathered:
- All 8 injectors are brand new
- The Idle Air Valve has been replaced relatively recently
- The Idle Air Control Unit appears to have been replaced recently

A couple things - if I "prime" the fuel distributor by pressing down the sensor plate, I can get the car to fire to life right away, but it will not idle. If I have someone else start the car, but I hold the sensor plate just barely down, it will idle almost perfectly.

To me, this tells me that the car isn't getting enough air, or fuel at idle (duh), indicating that the idle control system itself isn't functioning.

Here are a couple things I still need to check:
-The functioning of the Overload protection relay (OVP) which I heard has an impact on the idle system
-Need to test for voltage at the idle air control valve (I think it's supposed to be 12+ volts)
-Need to test for voltage at the cold start injector (but my understanding is this is only functional when the car is being cranked anyway)


Otherwise, I'm open to your troubleshooting suggestions and/or workflow. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif) Thanks!

-G