Re:85 Spider No Start problem

[Anne O <advection@xxxxxxx>]

f the AFM is not turning on the fuel pump,but the fuel pump runs when jumped out,you have a bad main (combi) relay. 
It is the long square black relay under the parcel shelf. It controls the fuel pump and injectors,among other things. 

While you are in there,check if any wires were spliced in from either relay to ground.If not,this is a necessary upgrade to insure the new relay lasts. I'll cut and paste from an old digest post: 

> You have a bad ground inside the ECU. It's on pin #28 
> on the ECU connector but the fix is at the main relay. 
> Locate contact #85 on the relay. Splice into either 
> one of the wires that go to this contact and run it to 
> a known good ground. One of the two wires that 
> connect to his terminal goes to pin #28 on the ECU and 
> the other goes to pin #31 on the other relay. You can 
> actually insert your ground anywhere in this. I 
> believe the wires are black, but I've seen other 
> colors too, so don't trust color. Look for contact 
> numbers and pin numbers. 
> This is a very common problem with L-jet spiders and 
> the factory fix, rather than replacing the ECU is to 
> insert this external ground as I described. 
> The problem is, when the circuit board fails at this 
> point, it doesn't eliminate the ground completely but 
> rather just creates a low resistance open circuit. 
> The relay needs a good zero resistance ground or it 
> will open and close intermittently. Your relay 
> becomes a "Buzzer" and, of course, it doesn't last 
> long as a buzzer. 
> 
> Look at your wiring diagram and follow from ECU pin 
> #28 and you will see what I mean. Pins #5, #16, #17, 
> and #28 are all grounds. In fact, the first three are 
> the grounds that go to the cam cover. 
> 
> If you have trouble send me a note. If it works, let me know. 

>>His advice seemed good, as the "burning" of my relay was around 
>>Ok, so I did what he said, tapping into the wire on terminal 
>>#31. The car wouldn't start. Tried removing the wire. 
>>Car sort of started (died right away). Went back and forth. 
>>After awhile (which I'm attributing to the car having sat 
>>for awhile) it started in a rough but steady idle. Putting 
>>this new ground wire on and off of ground showed that it was 
>>helping - taking it off the ground gave a rough idle & the 
>>engine threatened to die - putting it back on & the engine 
>>went to a smooth idle. 

>>FWIW - I think that this should be interesting, in case you 
>>ever have the same problem! 

Good luck, 
Anne O
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided