Ok here is the sad story.

I have a 1984 fiat spider with fuel injection, I drove it home from Sanford Florida and it went great no problems. I start the restoration and take everything out of the car pulled the engine/gearbox out and everything else so I could restore it. I changed the timing belt and put in a new tensioner, I rotated the engine afterwards and it moved frelly, no clunks. Put the engine and gear box back in and put back all the wires, however I did mess up with the wires on the starter. I have checked the earth to the body and the earth on the intake, I am pretty sure I have all the wires in the right place as when I disconnected them I tagged most of them and put them inside a sealed plastic bag.

So last night I tried to start the car, it turned over freely with the help of jumper leads and another car running, but it would not fire. I tried putting starter fluid down the intake and it tried to fire but it felt like the engine wanted to jump out of the car. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT COULD BE WRONG!!. Or is there any quick checks I should do. The restoration is almost complete all that is left is the interior.

ok back to basics.

when engine is at tdc, what cylinder are you firing to?

did you replace the pickup inside the distributor?

do you have spark?

have you done a compression test?

i am assuming that all the timing marks are correct on the timing belt

It does sound like it is way out of time.

Compression test done all good
Timing marks at the correct position
No I have not done anything to the distributor
Will check tonight if I have a spark
When I replaced the timing belt and tensioner, all I did was move the crank pulley till the top cams were in the correct position and the crank pulley was on its mark, the auxillery pulley mark was at 1 o'clock. I took off the old belt and put a new one on making sue none of the pullies moved.

ok sounds good, check to see if you installed all of the ground wires on the intake side, there are 3 i think that bolt to the intake, 2 for sure, part of the efi harness. check the coil, the lead that goes to the efi harness , make sure it is connected

I just turned on the ignition and went underneath the car to hear If the fuel pump was running, not running or making any noise could this be the problem.

The flap in the AFM has to open before the fuel pump will run. It should run while you are cranking. If you want to check, take the fuel line at the cold start valve and stick it in a can as, if the pump is running, fuel will come out at 30+ psi when cranking. Just a second of cranking will tell you if it is working.
If you have fuel then spark check and all the connections for the ignition. White cable to the control module on the coil ballast. (mine loosened up and stopped the car, have it zip tied tight now) Plugs in good shape..
Reading you have not mucked with the dist, but there are two wires under the cap and rotor that get very brittle and will break....car stops.
Good luck

Hey Guys

Thanks for all the help, its ALIVE, got it running on Sunday sounds great still have an exhaust leak but I am so happy it is running again. Probably need another 3 weeks to get it offcially back on the road.

Scott

MYFIAT wrote:Hey Guys

Thanks for all the help, its ALIVE, got it running on Sunday sounds great still have an exhaust leak but I am so happy it is running again. Probably need another 3 weeks to get it offcially back on the road.

Scott

AND? What was th issue of it not starting?

The battery was dead so I bought a new one and I found two wires to the coil were not in properly.

Hi experts

Need some help.

2 wires at the gearbox where do they connect to?
Start the car indicators work, brake lights work, but when I turn on the headlights there is no dash lights, no side lights, no license lights and no rear lights, any ideas.

Scott