Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Granted it was cold last night, but it's been colder, including yesterday, when it started fine and drove fine. The MK1 is a 1988 with a 4 cylinder Astron 2.6L carburetor... I may have flooded it, I don't know. I even tried Ether! It just cranks and cranks, but doesn't even try to fire. It's 31 F now.. not really cold at all. I've ruled out the cam gear as I turned to crank it while in gear (on purpose) and the truck lurches forward... so I have no idea. If I flooded it, how long should I wait? I also tried holding the throttle down all the way and cranking it for about 15 seconds at a time until I've nearly run the battery dead... what now? ANy ideas? I'm desperate.

Robin,

That sounds like an electrical problem to me...

Not maybe the coil? Does it have a "classical" distributor? If yes, maybe the points?

Hope you get it sorted!

Anton

It doesn't have points, it has an electrical distributor.

It may well be the distributor or the cap, I have no idea until it's diagnosed... it's just been too cold to get out and work on anything today. Plus they run about 300 which I don't have.

check all your elecrical connectors, if it is the distibutor type your talking about, if the main feed pulls out jsut a bit, the truck will not start. when was the last time you changed your fuel filter by the way? my guess is that now that it is below freezing and you are carbed that with a slight bit of water build up you will get no start period. cheap and easy fix if its that.

Check two basic things:

• Fuel: take off the air cleaner, push the accellerator and see whether there is a squirt of fuel into the throat of the carb
• Spark: take off one lead, hold it close to the engine block and crank the engine. If it doesn't shock you or throw a spark, your ignition is dead.

The 3rd & 4th requirements (compression & timing) we'll leave out for first, because it should not have changed over night.

So I removed one of the spark plug leads and found my spark plug socket was too small, but I attached an extra new one I'd bought for a Honda to the lead and had AJ crank the engine. Sure enough, a small spark.

Next I examined the throttle body and choke.. had her press the accellerator all the wa and saw the choke wasn't moving.. much. I opened the thottle by hand and sprayed carb cleaner on it.. and the Pajero fired right up, with a little help from some Ether.

Drive it all around town to charge the battery some more. stopped and started the engine 3 more times, and it runs flawlessly.. just slow as usual.. idling about 850-1000 rpm...

Thank you for all of your help.. I'm also on POCUK, and seems like the South African Club was much more helpful!

-Robin