Recently my '82 900 turbo has been acting up. Twice in the past 3 weeks it will not start. It will turn over until the battery is drained (as my wife discovered). I am able to loosen one of the fuel lines on the fuel distributor, run the fuel pump for a few seconds to bleed out the pressure from the system, tighten up the line and she starts right up. The pressure accumulator is definitely working; when I loosen the banjo fitting coming out of the fuel filter fuel sprays out quite a bit. Maybe too much...
I am getting spark, so I assume that this MUST be a fuel delivery problem.
Oh yes, the car was almost cold (had been running for only 1-3 minutes) the first time it happened. The other time the car had been shut off for approximately 2 hours. So we are not talking hot start problem. As I said the problem is intermittent, most of the time the car is fine. I have recently tuned it up replacing air, oil, and fuel filters, changed oil, changed spark plugs, leads, distributor cap & rotor. Also set lambda pulse ratio & timing. Could not replace O2 sensor, it is seized badly, but that's another story.
Some thoughts I have had:
a) insufficient or excess pressure generated by fuel pump or pressure accumulator... I wouldn't think this type of problem would be intermittent but I am often mistaken. I am reluctant to buy the test guage/fittings/etc. as it is about $65 and I will in all likelihood never use it again, but it's cheaper than taking it to a shop for 1 hour. BTW, does anybody know if an '82 900 turbo has a pressurized fuel tank? My manual seems to say "some do, some don't" but doesn't give VIN ranges.
b) turbo overpressure cut-out switch - anybody ever heard of intermittent problems with this? And is it located inside the car or in the engine compartment? My manual is unclear. Also as I had my two small children in the car last weekend when this happened I didn't really have time to climb into the trunk to ascertain whether or not the fuel pump was running while the car turned over. I DO hear the 1-2 second pumping when the ignition is first switched on. Would a tripped turbo safety switch keep this pre-ignition pumping from happening or is it on some separate circuit?
Any opinions greatly appreciated.
Dave