Well, thought i'd solved this issue, but alas, it's back. Have an intermittent crank/no start on my '86 GXL. Sometimes, it'll start right up. Sometimes, after messing with fuel/idle/tps stuff it'll start, but sometimes, even without changing anything from how it started before. Spark and compression are good (and my timing is as good as I can get it, though it may be sightly off), and fuel at least gets to the motor, as plugs will get wet. That said though, I think there's a fuel or vacuum issue in some capacity. MAF has been checked as per the FSM. All vacuum lines under the upper intake mani have been replaced, and previously when I was dealing with an issue like this, it ended up being fried primary injectors and a chewed up harness, both of which were replaced/fixed. The car will start fine off starter fluid, and will run every time after getting an initial kick off starter fluid if I hold the throttle to about 3k for a couple seconds. This is what makes me think it's either fuel or vacuum. Fuel pump and all soft lines have been replaced. Also worth mentioning that PO had an aftermarket alarm installed that wired straight into the ignition system and was stopping me from starting for quite awhile, so a lot of electrical stuff has been messed with. Are there any more common issues I should look into? I'm thinking it could be a bad sensor somewhere, a fuel issue, or a seized actuator somewhere, but don't even know where to start in terms of continued troubleshooting. I'm running out of ideas. Sorry this post is a little all over the place, but any help would me much appreciated.

 

first, welcome to the board.

so ... a few things come to mind.

does the car do this when the engine is cold, hot, or both?

when last did you change the plugs? plug wires?

when last did you change the fuel filter?

what pump did you put in there?

when you changed the injectors, were they new or used?

 

generally if it starts once it will start for the rest of the day; so only cold starts. Plugs are new, plug wires are not. Fuel filter is also new, but pump is the autozone special 💀. Injectors on the other hand are new remanufactured densos

 

okay, so you mentioned something about the timing possibly being off. so why don't you address that next? put a light on it and verify where it is, then adjust or reset if needed.

another possibility is chasing a less-than-secure ground.