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Car won?t start, backfires out of intake. Please help!

A Zombie

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Location
Seattle
Drove my 85 244 to work parked it, when I tried to leave. No start. It cranks fine, it almost starts occasionally but it shakes like crazy and backfires. I hear the fuel pump and fuel pump relay is clicking. Checked the timing marks, they all line up and belt is in tact. With crank pulley lined up with timing mark rotor is pointing to #1 cylinder. Coil lead shows a spark to ground. Lots of fuel sprays out of fuel line when disconnected. Tried plugging and unplugging MAF.

Ether this thing gets crushed in 2 days or it gets fixed.... help!!
 
If anyone in the Seattle area wants it and can pick up this week I?ll sell it for $350 you pick up
 
Did you look at the plugs? They could be fouled from all the starting attempts. The gap could be too large. There is a for sale section if you need it.
 
Could fouled plugs really be enough to bring it to its knees? And why wouldn’t it start in the first place?
 
it's lean if it's popping out the intake, maf would be my guess check to see if the big vacuume line to the brake booster broke
 
it's lean if it's popping out the intake, maf would be my guess check to see if the big vacuume line to the brake booster broke

More commonly the cap on the booster check valve pops off and creates a wide open vacuum leak. Engine vacuum will keep it in place until it's shut off which explains why it ran fine until he parked it.
 
I'd say timing belt jumped a tooth if it's backfiring out of the intake.


It looks nice and tight, cam pulley is lined up, can?t see the mark on the distributor pulley, but the rotor appears to line up.

If it was the MAF would disconnecting it work, or would it not run that way either.
 
Put in a a spare MAF I had, no go. No obvious hose out of place. But not showing any real vacuum from the half as test I did this morning. Sadly running out of time... anywhere less obvious to look for a major vacuum leak?
 
my 1988 240 story pulled up to gas pump car ran great filled up moved car so others could get gas, paid for gas car started ran for a second died than ran so horrible it could hardly be driven popping out the intake had to feather the throttle, thought for sure something major had broke, ran the same with the m.a.f. connected or disconnected, consulted with local Volvo experts, we decided it could be the m.a.f. replaced it and it purred like a kitten, lifetime retired Volvo mechanic said 10 percent of them die like that most m.a.f. failures will just make it run like crap but not rendered it basically undrivable
 
roll pin on cam to cam gear is possibly sheared. I had the same symptoms on a car I troubleshooted years ago.
 
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