I'm finding my 85 has become hard to start. It turns over for a while, I have to stop then turn some more and it eventually fires up and runs fine. Had to put a new fuel pump in last year, the old one died. I'm thinking I need to check the fuel pressure. Should I do it when the key is turned on but not cranking first or wait till I get it started?

 

Hook up a FP guage on the schrader, then key on engine off. Check pressure. You may have to cycle the key several times on and off to get the pressure to build to max. Then start car and the pressure should drop some as the fpr lowers pressure at idle. However, the pressure should stabilize. I don't know what your pressures should be before and fter start. On my 92 it is 43-45 with engine off and 39-41 at idle.
If pressure drops with key on enging off, we can trouble shoot it futher. You may have leaking injector(s) / FPR.........etc.

 

fuel and fire first

 

battery, starter, alternator next

 

Here is my story on my '85 from this summer.

Similar situation, would turn over but not fire. Eventually it would start. I first suspected leaky injectors since I was smelling fuel, but this was not it.

The way to solve the problem is to start eliminating things, not by throwing $s and parts at it. I ended up with a new fuel pressure gauge and a timing light out of the deal and feel way ahead since I solved it with some help from a forum member and a manual, instead of taking it to a dealer.

Here is what I would do:

1-hook up a fuel pressure gauge as previously described and determine if its a fuel problem (I've been told that 90% of fuel problems are electrical in nature)
2-when you are in no start condition, find out if you are getting spark. Hook up a timing light and try to start the car. If your light is doing its thing, then you have spark and can start eliminating ignition problems

chances are its one of these 2 things, probably #2. If it is #2, you can pull the coil and the ignition module from the distributor and get them tested at a local Autozone. If those test out ok, the next thing to test is the pick-up coil on the distributor. There are 2 wires on this connection (it hooks up to the igntion module, I believe) on the distributor, one is green (maybe green with a white stripe) and the other is white. Anyways, its a 2-post connection. Get an ohm meter going and probe one connection with the ground going to the distributor base, then do the other. Anything other than infinity will indicate a faulty pick-up coil. The part costs about $16 and is fairly easy to swap out. You will have to pull the distributor to do it. The Haines manual has a very good description of how to do this. If you do this, carefully mark, or better yet take digital photographs of the position of the rotor before pulling the distributor so you can put it back in the same position.

This was my problem over the course of 2 months, on again-off again. Once I got frustrated enough with it not starting, I began to be a little more relentless in the pursuit of a fix. If this is indeed your issue, figure on about 3-4 hours, maybe a little less, including the trip to the Autozone, for your fix.

 

excellent advice steve

 

Thanks but I now have more info, I hooked up my fuel pressure gage turned the key and for about 2 seconds had full pressure (did not turn car over) then I heard like a click and the pressure dropped to zero!!! Now if it doesn't fire right away, I turn it off, then try again, by the 3rd attempt it fires right away and runs fine!! The injectors were new 2 years ago, I replaced the pickup coil last year when I had it apart too. Now I'm stymied!!!

 

If I had to guess I would say that the check valve in your fuel pump might be bad. That is what happened to mine. Easy way to check it is pull it out. If you can blow air through it in both directions it has gone bad. Another way to check it if you don't want to remove it is have someone else turn the key. As soon as the pressure jumps up lightly pinch off the rubber hose on top of the gas tank with a pair of vise grips. If the pressure stays up when pinched then it is the check valve that has gone bad. If it drops then it's leaking from the other end, probably a bad injector.

 

Hmm, like a relay?

-JRC-

 

I agree with the above post and have someone pinch off the rubber engine supply line with vice grips AFTER you trun the key on to pressurize the system and BEFORE the 'click" and pressure goes to "0". If the fpg holds pressure, then the check valve in the fuel pump is bad.