Ok, After 2 Month Downtime for Repair She Won't Fire Up

[Captain Manly]

Had to correct some issues on Lola after some shakedown runs, now she won't fire up.

 

Engine was running fine before the work, but she just turns over and that's it.

 

Plenty of gas and electric pump is working.  

 

 Have dual Webbers, and 123ignition but not touched a thing, would I need to let the pump prime again as such a long sit?

 

Hazed and Confused.

 

Justin 

[jrhone]

Did you check the 123Ignition?  Is it bluetooth or USB?  I think if it has not been connected to power for a long period of time it can reset...so MAYBE the timing curves are not there and its not starting....

[rstclark]

 Rule 1 Most fuel problems are electrical  Check for spark at the plug wire and work backwards until you get spark  If you have spark then move on to fuel

Rule 2 What was the last thing you touched ?   double check your work in that area

 May just be a bad ground  Hope so   Cheers

[Simeon]

Checked for spark? Battery been off for a long time? Log in to your 123 and check the curve installed and set up. I have a feeling that if they left without power for a long period then they would lose their configuration. 

 

Done any thing in the engine compartment likely to dislodge any wiring in the vicinity of the coil?

 

Didn’t you have an MSD? You can test the MSD by holding the coil lead close to ground and taking the white lead from the MSD off the black lead of the 123 you can tap it to ground a couple of times. This should trigger a spark from the coil to check it is working. Watch you don’t shock yourself, that will take your fillings out. 

[02Pilot]

Fuel, air, and spark. You say plenty of fuel, but where? In the tank or in the float bowls? Assuming air, since you don't need much to start and idle, and it would be unlikely for rodents to fill all four throats in a couple months. Voltage? Are you using a jump box or charger? If so, have you verified spark?

[Captain Manly]

Bluetooth 123 version, plenty of gas and has good battery (why the 123 should not have power during that time?) 

 

If it needed to be remapped, would the file on my phone reset it while the ignition activate the search to the phone?

 

H & C

 

Justin 

[Simeon]

Plenty of gas... in the carb bowls? Are you getting a healthy squirt from the pump jets when you open the throttle?

 

Is there any sign at all of it trying to fire or is it literally just cranking with no attempts to fire. 

[2002Scoob]

Make sure all your connections to your dizzy (Edit, and coil!) are correct.

 

I had an occasion after winter where I was having issues getting her started, and had a faulty ground. 

 

Then there was the time where I had plain connected the wrong thing to the wrong thing... Unfortunately I can't remember what thing I had wrong... I believe it was a spare spade connector that was hanging out near the coil that I connected thinking it belonged, and it was grounding out and basically loosing the signal from the dizzy to the coil to release the hounds on the sparkers. 

 

Another time, I had done some tinkering, and I got my spark plug order wrong that led to some pretty spectacular backfires till I figured out my stupidity. 

 

As mentioned before, most starting issues seem to boil down to primarily electrical issues. 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by 2002Scoob

[Simeon]

6 minutes ago, 2002Scoob said:

release the hounds on the sparkers. 

 

Awesome. 

[02Pilot]

Clear communication and methodical diagnostics will go a long way to making this simple. Do you have spark? What is the battery voltage? Is there fuel in the carburetors? Is the engine trying to catch and failing or just spinning? First establish which system is failing, then work on what part is at fault.

[worzella]

2 hours ago, 2002Scoob said:

Another time, I had done some tinkering, and I got my spark plug order wrong that led to some pretty spectacular backfires till I figured out my stupidity. 

Boy can I attest to this one ?

[2002Scoob]

37 minutes ago, worzella said:

Boy can I attest to this one ?

Right?!

 

First time scared the ba-jesus outa' me.

 

Compounded by the fact I was in a very small, very echoey solid concrete underground garage. Rang for a few seconds in the garage, and the next 20 minutes in my ears. 

[2002Scoob]

And more seriously, as for troubleshooting, here was my rediculous work-thru to solve my no-start problem. I pretty much trouble shot every possible thing till i got to the dumb 'a-ha!' moment.

 

https://www.bmw2002faq.com/forums/topic/215274-ran-when-parked/?page=10

 

I'd attached the tacho wire to the coil, (and I don't have a tacho) and it was grounding out the system and killing spark. I ended up buying @KFunk a giant Snickers for guessing correctly. Ya ever finish that thing?

[KFunk]

Oh I had some help, but we powered through that Snickers.

 

First, yeah pump is running, but is there really enough fuel in there?  Try a little starter fluid in the air fluids and see if it fires some.  If it does, then figure out your fuel issue.  

If no fire with starter fluid, go to ignition. 

Yes, peek at wires and inside dizzy cap for obvious wrong stuff.  One of my first checks/solutions for obvious no spark is to run a hotwire from the positive battery post straight to positive post of coil and see if it'll fire up.  If it does, then leave that temp wire to get you home or whatever, then work backwards later and figure out real solution as to why your key isn't getting power to coil.  Sure, you can use a multimeter or test light to see if 12V is at coil first, if you want to be all proper instead.

If you got power at coil and still no run, see if wire from dizzy to coil is flashing when it should to make it spark.  You can do this with a  test light on the little black wire, or maybe a mulltimeter on little black wire if you have a good multimeter that can read intermittent spikes, or timing light on the big wire if you got to.  Then crank and see if you see flashes.  If no, continue to deduce if its going wrong at whats inside the dizzy or in the cap/plug wires.  If the points/123/crane/pertronix/whatever isnt doing what it should, you'll get no flashes from the little black wire to the coil.  If the coil is bad, you'll get no spark in big wire from coil to dizzy.  If dizzy cap/rotor isn't doing what it should, you'll get no spark from cap to plugs.