Milano won't start

[Marc <thresh@domain.elided>]

Thanks to those who replied.

I've taken a look at things and currently suspect one of two possible
problems.  The first possibility is the Thermo Time Switch.  The manual
states it should be 0 ohms with the engine cold and greater than 100 ohms
with the engine hot.  Mine shows about 33 ohms cold and 66.6 ohms hot.  The
high reading suggests that this may be the little devil that is causing me
problems.  The other candidate is the "Relay Set".  This is a relay unit
that mounts to the passenger side firewall and has two connectors going to
it.  Judging from the schematic it appears that there is a switch inside
that would prevent the injectors from working if it failed to close
properly.  If memory serves me the switch closes the circuit between 88b
and 88z.

Has anyone had problems with either of these two parts?

Marc

>Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 22:00:29 -0700
>To: Alfa digest
>From: Marc <thresh@domain.elided>
>Subject: Milano won't start
>
>Hi All,
>
>I'm having an intermittent problem with my 1987 Milano Gold with 101K
miles.   This one has me really confused.  It has been going on for several
years but is getting worse lately.  Today I spent nearly an hour trying to
get it started.  Here are the symptoms.   Normally the car starts on the
first crank, whether the engine is cold or warm.  Sometimes, however, it
refuses to start.  This has occurred both with the car warm and with the
car cold and on both warm and cold days.  When this occurs, the car cranks,
but doesn't even make an attempt at catching.  I have recently installed a
new auxiliary air device, and a new intake hose.  I've also installed a new
fuel filter. The timing is set correctly and once started it runs smoothly
and revs to redline freely.  When it has failed to start previously, I've
removed the plug boots and verified that the engine is getting spark.
Since it is getting spark I thought it might be the fuel pump failing to
turn on, so I shorted the 88d to 88y pins on the relay mounted to the
firewall to ensure that the pump was running.  That didn't help.  I've
cleaned up the contacts on all the connectors that I could get to in the
engine compartment.
>	When it fails I try mating and unmating connectors etc, but nothing seems
to help.  I generally wait between attempts at starting the car in case the
engine might be flooded.  Eventually after many tries the engine catches.
Once the engine is running, there are no additional problems (i.e. it
doesn't miss or die once it is running).
>	From this it appears that there is some relay or switch that can keep the
car from starting, but once the car is started it has no further effect.  
>Any ideas would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Marc
>

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