Righto having another problem with the car.

i replaced the spark plugs two days ago and the car was running fine untill today, i went out a few hours ago to move the car when i went to start it it just wouldent fire up it just kept cranking over, i removed the plugs and they are all covered in fuel after cleaning them i tryed to fire it up again and it nearly started but just eneded up cranking over again.


any ideas people ? do i just need to repacle the plugs again ....

 

can of easy start lol. sounds like the mfi is playin up in the cold weather. have you got a strong spark?

 

just keeping on replacing the plugs wont fix the problem.

have you gapped them correctly first of all?

how old are the ht leads and what condition are they in?

does your car have a dizzy or coil pack?

coil pack - check ALL connections
dizzy - same as above but also check the inside of the cap, check for slop in the rotor arm and check timmings ok.

these should be a good starting point.

 

In the cold weather mine sometimes "spits" on cold startup. if it does this its a proper bitch to get it going, it can take 30 seconds to a minute of cranking to get it going.

no throttle, keep on cranking, then turn the ignition off, turn it on again so the fuel pump primes, turn it over and push the throttle on and off til it fires.

works for mine anyway.

 

if its on mfi
dis connect the cold start valve at the back of the inlet and try and start it and c if that helps
also check that the a/f meter is bobbing up and down as the weather cam cause them to stick

 

no i havent gapped them as i dont have a gapper. howver its been starting fine the last two days ....

 

If they are coming out wet then your overfuelling, so your idle mixture will need adjusting. Either that or it's a weak spark, as you have new plugs it could be Coil, Leads, Cap, Rotor arm.
My money is on idle mixture too rich...

 

I agree with karlos..... however why it is too rich is another problem.

unplugging the cold strart valve may well work but its just covering the problem... ford didn't sell these cars from new not starting...

Mine had a similar problem, in the end i cleaned ALL the electrical connectors, replaced all leaking or warn pipes and in the end the problem seemed to have been a gammy air temp sensor. So you may well have a faulty sensor some where. The bosch unit relies heavily on water and air temp to adjust mixture.

I started my car the other day after a few weeks of sitting in the snow and in fired up second revolution on the starter This is after the above and a proper set up.

Rob,

 

fully agree with Karlos and Rob


if they're not gapped right, thats half the problem, esp if too rich

 

Another possibility is the injectors are weaping while the engines off and dampening the plugs, hence you come to start it and it adds more fuel, wet plugs .co.uk

Get it efi'd jano will cure it once and for all I'm sure

 

Good point, you can check this by taking the injectors out and leaving them in plumed in sitting in jars or bags etc. But its unusual for all the injectors to leak, only every had one at a time in the past.

 

Where is the cold start ? and where do i unplug it from.... also how do i gap the spark plugs..... where would i get a gapping tool from ...

 

The cold start valve on my car is located under the plenum/manifold in the middle (between cylinders 2 and 3) and pointing upwards, just unplug the square connector.... this WILL not solve your issue long term on a fairly standard car.

Cant remember what the gap should be but plenty of people will tell you in a min im sure, but go to halfrauds and buy your self a set of feeler gauges.

Rob,

 

By removing the cold start what will this achive?

 

It counteracts the effect of leaking main injectors, or rich idle mixture, or a faulty sensor............. but only up to a point. If it starts after disconnection then it points to being to rich, you then have the task of finding out why!
With 20 year old fuel metering units it could even be the fuel pressure creeping up as they no longer stay calibrated/set like they did from new, this is one of the problems with MFI RST's.

 

So the metering head has come out of tune .... running efi would solve this...

 

Could well be that, and yes efi would solve this as you would no longer run a metering unit, or any of your old sensors or injectors....... not a cheap solution though!

 

WEll im putting cossie managment on so

 

Well then your okay aren't you lol

 

LMAO yeah stop wasting our time then!!

 

LOL well its going to be a while soo ill have to put up with the mfi till then.

 

Yeah mate get it running as best as you can until then!

 

Trust us on this....

Clean every connector you can find, replace the water temp sensor and the air temp sensor (fairly cheap), check all hoses for leaks etc then take it and get it set up.

I recently had my car set up at totd, they charged £100 and the car has never run better.... until i took it to pieces lol but seriously WELL worth it.

Rob,