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I dragged home a white turd.

Cwazywazy

Single jingle
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Location
Granby CT
I'mma call it Whitey, because it broke my streak of buying blue cars. Bought for $675. Pretty crusty overall, you can tell it was kept outside, but the rockers and floorpans are 100% solid. 1988 244DL with legit 93k and an autotragic.

It had no spark, found the problem to be a crappy repair at the connector to the Chrysler box. Now it has spark at the plugs. Firing order is correct. Compression test showed an even 120psi. Still won't run on brake cleaner shot into the intake..

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Fuel pump working? I'd clean the fuses and the fuse holders. Check fuel pump relay. Usual turd stuff. Main 30 amp fuse to ECU connected to battery.

Found two things. One, the timing was waaaaay off. Like 30-40 deg after TDC. Two, the fuel pumps aren't running, even though they were earlier when I had no spark.
 
Popped in a spare fuel relay and eventually it sputtered into life. Has a pretty good miss at idle, runs fine under throttle. The top of the firewall is messed up for some reason.. Hood is gonna need some attention too.

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Looks pretty solid for back east. Maybe when the put the new motor in it, it hit the firewall. Someone pushed in the cherry picker a little wee bit too hard and fast? Or dropped it too quick. A fresh piece of that foam board sound deadning stuff and you won't see the ding! Can't fix it, hide it!
 
Looks pretty solid for back east. Maybe when the put the new motor in it, it hit the firewall. Someone pushed in the cherry picker a little wee bit too hard and fast? Or dropped it too quick. A fresh piece of that foam board sound deadning stuff and you won't see the ding! Can't fix it, hide it!

Is that foam board still available anywhere? My '82 is the only 240 I've had with that thing fully intact. Still has the hood insulation too.
 
Got er reggo'd today. Still idles kinda rough but under throttle it runs like a stock 240 should. (Slow as hell) Trans shifts butter smooth through all 4 gears. Does need an alignment though, pulls right. I spent at least 2 hours just cleaning the interior today. Found a big mouse nest in the center of the dash and a little one in the left air vent. Has some issues, speedo doesn't work but it's not the speedo itself, temp gauge doesn't work and it is the temp gauge itself, and there's a nice loud clunking from the rear. Probably axle bushings. Also I put Virgos on it to make it, uh.. Snazzier. I like the white on black combo.

I've found that Rustoleum appliance paint is a pretty close match so I've also been getting the hood and fenders nice and flat for painting.

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Also check out these buttcheeks.

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So I'm having some driveability issues. It's intermittently very hard to start, sometimes it fires right up. Still has a rough idle but before it ran fine under throttle and now it's surging at any throttle position between idle and wide open. Pretty much everything ignition related was replaced by the previous owner, and IIRC he changed the fuel pumps too. Hood came out decent tho.

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Nice find. Just out of curiosity, how do you know the mileage is legitimate? Seems quite rough for <100k.

I have seen Chrysler ignition 240s idle like that, many of them kind of just idle crappy. It's hit or miss.

Check the fuel pressure regulator line for gas smell if it's hard to start when warm. Have you checked timing belt and made certain timing marks were spot on?
 
Nice find. Just out of curiosity, how do you know the mileage is legitimate? Seems quite rough for <100k.

I have seen Chrysler ignition 240s idle like that, many of them kind of just idle crappy. It's hit or miss.

Check the fuel pressure regulator line for gas smell if it's hard to start when warm. Have you checked timing belt and made certain timing marks were spot on?

FPR is also shiny and new. The fact that it still goes WOT fine makes me think it's not fuel pressure.

When I got it the speedo didn't work because of a crappy connection in the wiring from the sensor to the trunk but I have no reason not to believe that it's under 100k. Trip meter wasn't at 0 so it may have just been from sitting. It doesn't even piston slap when cold.

According to the sticker the timing belt is about 50k and 25 years old. So I should probably do that, huh..
 
FPR is also shiny and new. The fact that it still goes WOT fine makes me think it's not fuel pressure.

When I got it the speedo didn't work because of a crappy connection in the wiring from the sensor to the trunk but I have no reason not to believe that it's under 100k. Trip meter wasn't at 0 so it may have just been from sitting. It doesn't even piston slap when cold.

According to the sticker the timing belt is about 50k and 25 years old. So I should probably do that, huh..

People often swap clusters instead of fixing the gear. Either way it doesn?t really matter as long as you?re happy with the car. :)
 
Maybe the injector seals? Vacuum leak somewhere?

Yeah I use the rusty appliance white also. I just painted a serious wheel the other day with it. Now that is some nice shiny white paint!
 
Checked for vacuum leaks, found one, fixed it, no difference. Checked timing and it was bouncing around a little in line with the misfire. Tried my spare Chrysler box, no change, tried unplugging the knock sensor, no change, etc. Might try my spare distributor, I know the PO replaced the hall sensor. Also threw in an old Bosch o2 sensor I had, again with no change. It's had a crappy idle since I got it but the surging while driving only started happening after I registered it.. How do I check fuel pressure on an 88?

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Pulled these injectors out. I found some old ones that looked better, ran them through the ultrasonic cleaner, made a little injector clicker, and blasted carb cleaner through them. Put them on and the car barely ran. Then I realized they're turbo injectors so I cleaned the originals with the same process and the car's definitely happier now. It's still surging but the starting and idling improved. Might just be wishful thinking, but it feels a tiny bit faster too.

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Changed the plugs even though they were basically new, good thing I did because the #3 plug had about zero gap. Still idled like garbage so I popped in a spare distributor. That was the golden ticket. It still doesn't idle perfect but it's about a million times better. Before it was so bad that I couldn't even brake smoothly at low speeds because the engine would make the car judder. Still has a little bit of hesitation accelerating which I'm betting a new MAF will eliminate.

It's now making a ticking noise at idle. Exhaust leak maybe?

Neat side note; after I shut it off there's a ticking noise as it cools down. My turbo wagon did the same thing before I gave it a new exhaust and apparently so did my grandpa's old 240, which he bought new.

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Did you swap the whole distributor, or just the cap and rotor? Good find. A worn cap/rotor is giving my 93 wagon a bit of a hesitation and lumpy idle.
 
Did you swap the whole distributor, or just the cap and rotor? Good find. A worn cap/rotor is giving my 93 wagon a bit of a hesitation and lumpy idle.

Whole thing, cap/rotor were new so I left those. Previous owner replaced the hall sensor in the distributor when he was trying to fix the no spark, I'm guessing he got something wrong or got a bad sensor. Maybe he set it too far away from the spinny bit?

Anyway, I now consider this car daily driveable. Just gotta take care of that slight hesitation/surge and it'll be running perfect.

Needs some more work on the exterior, some suspension work and alignment, then fix the AC, and then I should have myself a very nice cheap 240.
 
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