Driving the car home last night with the gas gauge reading 1/2 full my car all of a sudden sputtered and stalled like it ran out of gas!! I went to the gas station got a gallon of gas and it still would not start.

Is there anything special I should know, to try to get this to start? could I have blown a fuel injector?? Is maybe a gallon not enough in the tank and I need to add a couple more??

Any suggestions would help!!

By the way its a 1973 1.7 with D-Jet injection

You might have to trick the fuel pump into running while the car is off in order to "fill" up the fuel rails....not too sure, just a wild guess

"like" it ran out of gas?

did it or didn't it ? do you have a reason not to trust the gauge ? did you stick the tank for a more reliable indicatition ? did you look inside ? if there's axtually half a tank of gas, adding another gallon won't help your problem ...

if you "suddenly" lost half a tank of gas, look for the source of the big leak, and fix that.

if it actually has gas, check for the other likely suspects: fuel pressure (do you hear the pump running?) and ignition (more likely).

if you actually -did- run out of gas and your gauge is defective (although - usually the light will still work unless you have a stuck float...) it may take several key on/key off cycles to purge the air from the fuel loop and develop fuel pressure. you should hear the fuel pump run a second or two when you cycle the key.

Ether/quick start....if that doesn't do it....you have other issues.

all the above.

also, IF you ran out of gas, your fuel filter is most likely plugged with crap now that had been sitting on the bottom of your tank. you needa change the filter first. again, that's IF you actually ran out of gas.

Andy

I thought mine had run out of gas and I added 2 gallons. I cranked and I cranked trying get it started. After replacing the fuel filter and eventually having it towed my mechanic found that the rotor was shot!

Seaside6

After adding the gas, the motor cranked and cranked and just wouldn't start, a couple of times it sounded like it was starting but wouldn't. I cranked so much that the battery went low, had to start jumping it.

This happened once before when the gauge was at half full the car wouldn't crank over, me in my infinite wisdom thought it was because one of the electical wires to the fuel pump was frayed so I replaced the whole fuel system electrical. It still didn't crank so I took it to the shop, they ended up replacing the distributor, a couple bad injectors and said that it was out of GAS!! $500 bucks later it was running.

I am hoping not to have to do that again!!!

Indio, Did you hear the fuel pump? Could you smell gas? Did you check for spark? Are you fuel injected?

You can fix it. We can help.

you gotta let us help you by providing more information.

how much gas is in the tank, REALLY ?
when you turn the key to the 'on' position, do you hear the fuel pump run for a moment ?
(if no, find out why your fuel pump is not running. CHECK THE FUSES - all of them)

pull a spark plug. if there is fuel pressure but no spark the plug will probably be wet with gas; find and fix the ignition problem.

all further speculation is pointless until we know what kind of problem you're dealing with. it's probably something simple but right now, it could still be anything ...

Yes the fuel pump runs every time, no problem. I will stick something down the tank, when I get home tonight to see the fuel level. I have not checked for spark which I will do tonight!!!

The same thing used to happen to my Volvo all the time. It was something really simple. Sometimes the fuses wouldn't make good contact (it had the same crappy european ones as teeners). If I just spun the fuses in their holders it would start. Something simple to check, although not likely your problem.

Open the fuel cap and look inside with a flashlight. You can totally see in there to check if there is gas.

It does sound like a spark issue.

Don't use a match to look down into the gas tank

The early Haynes says to use a torch.


M

Yes..the rare first edition....
Most copies were incinerated while following directions

mine still does

but it also sais:

"Any reference to a "torch" appearing in this manual should always be taken to mean a hand-held, battery-operated electrical light or flashlight. it DOES NOT mean a welding or propane torch or blowtorch."


Andy

Must be the "'Murican Edition".

I used a match to see if my battery was low! That was in my hippy daze. My eyebrows are back now

........b

This happened to me. The car was running fine then just quit. After freaking out a little (this happened on the first day of ownership and I still had to drive the car 3000 miles home that week) I rolled the fuses on the relay board for the fuel pump in their holders per Brads' suggestion (Thanks, B!!) it started right up and I haven't had a problem since.

I want to let you all know how stupid I really feel today, I didn't get a chance to look at the car yesterday, so when I got off work today I took off the gas cap and checked the fuel tank and it looked like it had plenty of fuel.

Then I opened the bay, said boy am I an idiot and saw that one of the wires to the coil was not connected, I kept saying "please don't tell me thats all it is" . 5 seconds later VVRRRROOOOMMMMM!!!

It started right up, sorry guys, I didn't notice it before when it died because it was so dark.

2 things:

first, it takes a real man (or woman) to admit in public that he/she is an idiot!

second, glad your car is running again!

Andy

Congrats!

You're looking at it all the wrong way though. The:
"My car won't start. What's this loose wire? 'VVRRRROOOOMMMMM!!!'"
problems are the BEST kind.

stuff like that has happened to all of us. or will.

glad your car is running again, thanks for reporting back what the actual cause of the trouble was.

I always say the opposite, "Please let it be just this"!

Same happened to me. At a stop sign, gunned it & made a right turn, halfway thru car died. Wire off at coil

...........b

Indio, make sure the coil is properly secured. They mess up a lot of stuff when they fall into the fan

Glad you found the problem

P.S. a good flashlight is one of the best tools you can have in the 914

I'm pretty sure my wife has never admitted being wrong...

Glad all is well again!

Does anyone here have one of those LED flashlights that doesn't use batteries? Sitting in an airplane on the tarmac for an hour while they tried to make the plane I was on flight-worthy last week, I had the opportunity to peruse the entirety of the airline catalog, and they had this clever little flashlight that reportedly used a magnet, shaken back and forth through a coil in the handle of the flashlight to generate enough energy to power an LED for about 10 minutes IIRC (with a 30 second shake). Sounded interesting at least. I was wondering how worthwhile they really were....I think they wanted $30 for it.

Same sort of thing happened to me too. Was blasting around the freeway with my girlfriend (on one of the 3 drives last summer), the car starts to sputter and die, so I coast off an exit. Turned out that the coil wasn't attached very well and it rotated and grounded out one of the wires. Took 10 or 15 minutes of poking around to figure that out. Got it started and limped it home. Didn't run worth a pinch of sh!t after that. Still haven't got it running well. Thats this springs project. Anybody know what can get fried when the coil grounds out?

do you still have points?
could be the points or condensor then.

if you have a pertronix, that's usually work or don't work.
could maybe be "half" fried.

Andy

I've seen two coils fall off in the last year. One of them fried the coil, points, condenser, and key switch(may be coincedental)and a few wires to boot.

I still have points and condenser, but I have a new Pertronix sitting on the shelf. I was planning on putting the Pertronix in, and changing the ignition switch. I'll also inspect the wires. Should that be all I need?

Why were planning on changing the switch anyway?
Go ahead with the pertronics. Most times that should do the trick. It's been my experience that the condersor goes first.

Edit:condensor

I was thinking about changing the ignition just to eliminate one more possible problem. Change it now before it goes and leaves me stranded. It's a pretty cheap part, and I'm putting an order in, so I thought I'd get it now.