88 Quandary

1ST Post - long time Range Rover enthusiast.

I have owned my current 1988 Classic for almost 5 years now. The prior owner swapped the original 3.5L for the 3.9L. He owned a European car repair facility and seemed to talk the talk of a mechanic. Anyway, my Rover has been dead in my driveway for almost a year now with a ghost electrical/starting problem. I have the shop service manual and have performed the 6-7 prescribed ignition tests. In November of '05 I got tired of trying to work on my Classic so I went out and bought a new 06 Toyota Tundra. It's been awhile but I now want to bring the Classic back to life. This past month I have replaced the inner and outer real shaft seals, put in heavy duty rear coils and new brake pads all around. Not to much more to do other than focus on the non starting engine. While I know more specific info is needed I'm wondering if someone might want to help walk me through this problem. As far as I can tell the engine is turning over fine, it just wont catch. Any possible tips, ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

i'll assume you have the factory manual , the big thick one. there is a great proceedure in there for determining a no start issue. it should let you narrow it down.

fuel, air, electricity you need the right combination of these to get it started. Let me see if i can get some copies ofthere to post.

check pm box for details

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Originally Posted by nosivad_bor

check pm box for details

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Thanks for the link. Looks like the same manual I have, although I'm not sure I have ever seen the fault finding diagram that the link offered. I will be spending several hours on 11/2 trying to determine the cause of the non start. The vehicle hasn't been turned over in 8+ months and there is only 2-3 gallons in the fuel tank. I'm wondering if I have moisture/bad fuel going into the motor. Think I should drain the tank and start with 5 gallons of fresh fuel?

Thanks,
Ryan

yeah gets some fresh fuel. check the fuel filter and make sure the pump works, you'll have to splice in an in line fuel pressure tester where the fuel filter if you can find one to see how well the fuel is moving.

one you confirm that those are working i like to test the coil, after that's known to work go to the spark plugs and all that. if you get even a little bit of spark and can get the truck to run roughly, that's better than now. you really don't have to go in this order but i do like to go from the basics of one component to the next.

last make sure all air passages are clear and no mouse nest in the air box.

- if you have good spark- and suspect that its starving for fuel you can shoot a little starter fluid into the air intake, if it starts to run for a second thats a serious clue, don't over do it though of you can saturate the air filter and you can get a little blowback.

the trouble shoot chart is pretty nice, i dont think ive seen it in newer manuals :)

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Originally Posted by 88 3.9L

Thanks for the link. Looks like the same manual I have, although I'm not sure I have ever seen the fault finding diagram that the link offered. I will be spending several hours on 11/2 trying to determine the cause of the non start. The vehicle hasn't been turned over in 8+ months and there is only 2-3 gallons in the fuel tank. I'm wondering if I have moisture/bad fuel going into the motor. Think I should drain the tank and start with 5 gallons of fresh fuel?

Thanks,
Ryan

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As the previous poster said...if you spray some starting fluid in while you're turning it over, and the thing catches, that will be a big clue. Way back I had similar problems on my rover, I went through the fuel pump, starter switch...it ended up being a bad inertia switch. Check that, because it might be as easy as just switching the switch back into the "on" position under the front seat.

Chris

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Originally Posted by Dubv1980

As the previous poster said...if you spray some starting fluid in while you're turning it over, and the thing catches, that will be a big clue. Way back I had similar problems on my rover, I went through the fuel pump, starter switch...it ended up being a bad inertia switch. Check that, because it might be as easy as just switching the switch back into the "on" position under the front seat.

Chris

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Thanks for the tip. My plan was to spend a good deal of time working on the Rover tonight, but unfortunately the weather will prevent this from happening. The fuel filter is brand new, and I never seemed to have any problem with the fuel pump. Does an '88 Classic have an inertia switch? This is to prevent fuel flow if the vehicle rolls over, right? One thing I have to replace is the distributor rotor. When the car stopped running a year ago I replaced the fuel filter, plugs, wires, rotor and dist. cap. The rotor I installed though was from Kragen and since then I have learned that the only way to go is genuine Lucas. The reason I replaced the rotor is because one of my test indicated that the rotor was shot. If I recall I removed the cap and held one of the wires 2-5 mm away from the top of the rotor. When we cranked over the engine there was a spark from the wire to the rotor, indicating a grounding fault, I think.

I will definitely spend some time under the hood this weekend and will report what I find. Thanks for the interest.

Ryan

I don't know if the 88 Range Rovers had the switch...mine is a '91 and it had it. Its worth a check, it was right down under the front driver seat, visible from the back seat. Again, probably not the problem, but such an easy fix, it doesn't hurt to check! I would definitely try starting it on starting fluid and see what happens, that should tell us a lot.

Chris

Well I had all my repair manuals out and was starting my diagnosis. I went and got five fresh gallons of fuel and put them in the Rover. Before I did anything else I decided to replace the distributor rotor which I suspected needing to be replaced. As I said earlier it was a brand new Kragen replacement. Certain articles I read pointed to a high early failure rate on non Lucas rotors. So I put in the new Lucas rotor, turned the key and VROOOOOM. The motor came to life with unexpected quickness. I drove around for about 3 miles and it felt/drove great. It did seem to hesitate just a bit as I made it around the last turn in my neighborhood before parking it. I started it several times and each time it started up just fine. So other than the late hesitation things are looking up. Thanks for the pointers and advice. As I continue to drive it I will report if the hesitation continues.

Thanks Ryan

you sould have a good snap and a blue spark to your coil wire.also check your plug wires for correct sequence.check spark there as well.
http://singingcamel.com

I have been present for 20 or so distributor and rotor changes over my rover years and i have seen 3 or 4 that ran like hell because of a bad rotor. so this does not surprise me. how sweet it is ..... :thumb-up:

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Originally Posted by 88 3.9L

Well I had all my repair manuals out and was starting my diagnosis. I went and got five fresh gallons of fuel and put them in the Rover. Before I did anything else I decided to replace the distributor rotor which I suspected needing to be replaced. As I said earlier it was a brand new Kragen replacement. Certain articles I read pointed to a high early failure rate on non Lucas rotors. So I put in the new Lucas rotor, turned the key and VROOOOOM. The motor came to life with unexpected quickness. I drove around for about 3 miles and it felt/drove great. It did seem to hesitate just a bit as I made it around the last turn in my neighborhood before parking it. I started it several times and each time it started up just fine. So other than the late hesitation things are looking up. Thanks for the pointers and advice. As I continue to drive it I will report if the hesitation continues.

Thanks Ryan

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