car wont start

I just finished doing my tune up on my car that i recently just got, its a 79 244 with 74,000 miles from a impound lot auction. It didn't run good at all when I drove it home, seemed like it was missing; missing fuel or spark. It almost stalled a few times and loss of power was intermittent. So I didn't know what it needed I just did everything i.e. timing belt, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, radiator, air filter, plugs, wires, distributor and rotor. Well I tried to start it and it cranks over but wont start.


We think its a couple of things, the car was sitting at lot for who knows how long so the gas might be bad, I see a couple of hoses that have completely ripped off from a canister looking thing on front passenger side, and small hose coming out of the block with a bolt pushed into it.

any ideas would be appreciated!

Disable the fuel system by pulling a relay or fuse strategically, , clear out the cylinders by pulling plugs and cranking, reinstall plugs, spray ether into the intake manifold and see if it starts.

should i drain the old gas first and what do you mean ether??

I should mention theres a new fuel relay installed too

By all means drain all the old gas. There is no telling what you might find in that stuff.



. . . and it can cause problems with the other parts of the injection system.

Starter fluid is ether.

what's the easiest way to drain it? Pull a line somewhere or siphon it?

Are you gonna try the test I suggested?


Pull a fuel line and jump the tank pump.

i agree with above most likely a clogged fuel filter im thinking or rsr or ect sender or lol well anything a wire is attached to on a 740

I'm gonna go with hole in the block.

yes I'm gonna try all that's been suggested, I'll get back with my results. Also can the fuel pump be clogged even if it engages? I can hear it turn on

neek said:

what's the easiest way to drain it? Pull a line somewhere or siphon it?

Click to expand...

Disconnect the line from the tank to the underbody fuel pump and run that into a bucket. With the key at II that should run the intank pump and allow you to easily drain the tank.

Pumps should only run with engine running! Jump manually


I think on Kjet cars the pump goes when engine vac lifts the airplate. I might be wrong. Anyways, it's cake to jump a pump with a wiring diagram and 12v applied to the correct place. Like a fuse . Wherever is easiest acess. On a modern car I just pull the fuel pump relay under the hood and jump the pins.

K-Jet cars -'77 used the fuel pump relay cut out switch. Lifting the throttle plate will active the pumps, but so will removing the connector from the air flow meter, which is easier.

To active the pump on later K-jet cars, Volvo wants you to use a relay and connect to the coil wires. I find it easier to jump the wires right at the relay under the dash.

Or just keep it real simple and access the fuel pump connector and apply power and ground. No offense but if powering a fuel pump up is tricky for the OP, it's probably gonna be tough to get an old Kjet car to run correctly. Only one way to learn and that is to dive right in there!!!

These old volvos are great to learn how to wrench on, but learning the ways of Kjet is a lost art. Not too many mechanical fuel injection cars left on the road. I don't even know how to diagnose them worth a crap, but the basics are still the same.

Or go full tbricker mentality and megasquirt it!!! The parts are gonna be hard to find and expensive for old Kjet stuff.

The K-Jet system is so basic that computers aren't required for it to operate. They were added later to control idle speed and fine tune the fuel mixture, but the system will run without them. Replacement parts can be expensive and hard to find, but not impossible. Repair procedures are well documented and the fuel pressure gauge that's needed to properly diagnose the system will soon be available to rent from me. There's no need to go with an aftermarket fuel management system on an otherwise stock engine.

Nothing wrong with K-jet that a lot of love won't take care of.

Step 1. Get the old gas out. Do as suggested above and pull the hose off the tank side of the pump. Jump the fuel pump relay red lead, that is hot with the ignition key in RUN position, to the yellow/red lead to the tank pump.

Step 2. Put the hose back on the pump and put a few gallons of fuel in the tank. Changing the fuel filter is a very good idea.

Step 3. The suggestion on trying starter fluid will tell you whether it is a fuel or an ignition issue.

If it tries to start on starter fluid then you get to enter the wonderful world of K-jet.

Here is a primer on that subject: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=289775

Once you get the fuel system correct, off to find vacuum leaks.

Got any pics of this 79 with 74k on the clock? With that low of miles, it SHOULD be in reasonable condition. Or it could be rotted out.

You will need to go thru a full diagnostic shake down procedure. This will require teaching yourself how to diagnose a kjet system. Things like checking fuel pressures at different points, testing individual components. I haven't bothered learning it since it's such an obsolete system. I might learn it someday because we still have old Porsches come into the shop that run it.

I am more of an EFI guy, but that being said, all cars work on the same principles. Spark, fuel, compression, and timing.

The $5 can of starting fluid (aka ether) is a low tech method I recommend to people on the web that have little or no tools, or experience. You disable the fuel system by pulling the fuel pump relay or fuse. Look at a diagram and figure it out. I am too lazy to go find it for you. Sorry. Ok so fuel system disabled so it doesn't flood. Now clear out the cylinders by cranking, pulling the plugs helps air it out and puts less stress on the battery.

Ok so cylinders are clear of any excess fuel. Might as well do a compression test while the plugs are out. It could have weak compression from a bad headgasket or mechanical issue.

NOW put the plugs back in. Find a way to get a good two shots of starting fluid into the intake manifold. It's gotta be nice and "atomized" or it wont work. You can't just squirt it into a hose for example.

Now see if it will start the starting fluid. IF IT DOES, that tells you that timing is correct, spark is correct, no mechanical issues, and that it's time to do fuel system (KJET) diag!

I do this test commonly on American cars where a dead fuel pump is suspect. It's fast and easy and no tools are required to check fuel pressure, spark, or timing.

This is PROOF that a car will run on nothing more than two sprays of ether if you do everything else right. This car didn't even have a gas tank or fuel lines and I got it to run.

https://youtu.be/vzQxpwOHb0c


I also got tired of retyping all this stuff so many times so I wrote an article. CLick link in me sig. Its not aimed at mechanical injection cars, but still has good points that may help.

A 1979 has a tank drain plug. Don't pump the gas out. Just drain it.

centason said:

Once you get the fuel system correct, off to find vacuum leaks.

Got any pics of this 79 with 74k on the clock? With that low of miles, it SHOULD be in reasonable condition. Or it could be rotted out.

Click to expand...

Yep, yep yep.

LH can handle vacuum leaks much better than Kjet. Check all the hoses and make sure they are on solidly and don't have cracks. Kjet is hydromechanical and works on pressure differentials in various streams of gasoline, so you'll also probably need to check the pressure at at least the pressure regulator and the control pressure regulator after you flush the system.

The cannister is probably the fuel evaporative control system. Nice to have, keeps the plants and beasties and Birkenstock-wearing city-dwelling morons who feel the need to tell everybody exactly what to do happier, but if the hoses to the manifold are blanked off it shouldn't cause mechanical problems.
Does it have Lambda-sond? It's been a while since the family's last Kjet Volvo left, but I seem to recall that a completely failed Lambda system can cause problems with a lean mixture, especially at startup after the cold start injector quits.

update: i couldn't figure the problem out so I had it towed to a local volvo shop here in phoenix. Before it got towed I tried draining the gas and it looked good but didn't have that pungent gas smell, my dad said it smelled like kerosene. I got a call from the shop they said they found a couple things, the first was that the crank seal was pushed into the block (probably my fault), they tried starting the car with ether and it started but couldn't stay running, and last was there was fuel pressure up to the fuel filter but wasn't very strong. So its obviously a fuel issue but they haven't narrowed it down yet, they're gonna call me w an update within a few days. Hope this isn't gonna be a big $$$$ job