Ok, so I have a Sterling Kit Car that has a 1972 Porsche 914/4 1.7 L in it. It had had an engine fire 20 years ago and has since been rewired and restored. Had it running (it had been running a little bit rich) and one day while driving down the driveway went to shift it into 1st or 2nd (i don't recall) and the car backfired and died. And it wouldn't start back up. Replaced the fuel pump and found out this wasn't the issue. Also checked injectors and they do squirt fine. The engine will crank and catch for a split second, like it wants to start, but won't do any more than that.

There is pressure to the system, but it seems as though something with the fuel delivery to the engine while cranking is off. Cleaned off the contacts on the relays and noticed that they look like they have been getting very hot. But they seem to check out when performing continuity checks. When the key is turned from off to on, the fuel pump runs for its normal 2 seconds. However, when the relays are switched around, the fuel pump will not run when turning the key.

The areas that I think I should investigate are the wires around the ignition switch, the cold start valve, and the relay board.

Has this happened to anyone before? Am I on the right track with where to investigate?

Verify you have spark and that timing is at least approximately acceptable.

After that I'd check your Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT) sensor connection and the condition of the CHT itself. If the connection is bad/disconnected or if the sensor itself has failed, it will dump enough fuel in that it will start and run briefly when engine is cold or not start at all (in my case it was the former).

I do have spark and the timing is appx. acceptable. The CHT wiring is fine and it seems the CHT's condition is fine as well. The fuel pump is running when I crank the engine. I am sure that it is the injectors that are not firing while cranking. Whether this is due to a bad injector connection or something causing the injector to not fire I don't know. When the pressure sensor is connected the engine acts like it wants to start and tries to catch, however when its disconnected the engine just cranks. If the pressure sensor has a bad diaphragm could it cause this?

You said you checked the injectors and they squirt fine. How did you check them? If you're not getting fuel when the engine is cranking then it could be trigger points. Check wiring connected to the back of the distributor. If that's not solidly connected, or if there's something else wrong with the trigger points inside the dizzy, the injectors won't fire.

Vacuum check the manifold pressure sensor. The back fire could have ruptured it Gordon

BeatNavy, we had pulled the injectors out and squirted them into a container. Also the coil and points have all been replaced after the engine died, and they have been properly set up. flash914, I checked the manifold pressure sensor, its wiring is fine and it has a slight vacuum leak but I don't think that that is causing the engine not to start.