Itinerant Air-Cooled

furgo wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:07 am

A 3.3V LED lightbulb should work for instance.

I had a spare 3.3V LED lying around and tried it out, since I had been using a 12V test light in the sun for the previous test.
Unfortunately the 3.3V LED did not flicker when cranking (no matter what orientation of the LED)

I guess I'll start sourcing a replacement ECU.

maxsvetlik wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:44 pm

I guess I'll start sourcing a replacement ECU.

Havin' any luck with that?

I have here a 039-906-021B ECU which Ratwell's ECU List sez is for a '79 Federal Manual. I believe it's actually the one that came out of my '81 when I converted it to California-spec (but I'm not 100% positive).

Where're you at? I could probably stuff this ECU in a USPS Fixed-Rate box and send it to ya to test with. No guarantees that it will work, although if it is the one I swapped out, it was working fine when I pulled it.

maxsvetlik wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:44 pm

I guess I'll start sourcing a replacement ECU.

I don't buy this. Neither do you. You only replaced a distributor. You are backed into a wall, and it seems . . . like the only next step. I don't buy it.

You say the injectors are not pulsing. It is worth installing points and condensor only to see if ECU may not be reading Pertronix pulses.

That trigger wire to the ECU better be on the (-) #1 terminal, not the 15 (+). If points, you best have a good condensor/point gap.
Colin

SlowLane wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:19 am

I could probably stuff this ECU in a USPS Fixed-Rate box and send it to ya to test with.

That's very generous and I wish I had taken you up on that. I ended up buying an ECU a day before I saw your post.

Amskeptic wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:56 pm

I don't buy this. Neither do you. You only replaced a distributor. You are backed into a wall, and it seems . . . like the only next step. I don't buy it.

I don't buy it...but I did buy it. I put the replacement ECU into the van... still the injectors were not squirting fuel. I thought, welp I guess I'll try the original ECU with all the injectors wired up (at this point, all the injectors were out and only 1 connected to the harness). For testing purposes, I was feeling lazy and left the original ECU in the engine bay, with its chassis connected to the block via aligator clip.

I cranked the engine feeling hopeless. To my grand surprise the injectors were firing. Feeling on a roll, I slapped the left injector rail into the block, double checked all the connections in the engine compartment and cranked the engine.

She started up immediately, just like old times.

So I'm chalking it up to a bad ECU ground, even though it doesn't make any sense at all. I still have the dedicated ground wire on the ECU chassis, now installed into its proper slot in the bay. I am curious if removing the wire will change anything, but my the joy of hearing the engine purr is greater than my curiosity at the moment.

Thanks for everyone that read through the saga / helped me troubleshoot this! Its unsatisfying not knowing the true issue, but I'll take what I can get.

Cheers
Max

I once dropped a distributor in two clicks off...with very similarly disturbing consequences. Some people can hear it....I cannot.