[goat1964-2004]

This one has me stumped. I've got a 70 Judge, auto, stock rebuild, Fitech EFI, crane xr-i ignition module, stock coil, plugs and wires. Car has always had issues starting both cold and hot, lots of cranking until it fires. After installed the FI I was hoping that would cure my issues, no luck.
While verifying voltage on my + side of the coil today with my multi meter the car started right up. I removed the meter and tried again and no start.
I repeated again three times to verify and it started after one crank every time.
What does adding a multimeter measuring voltage have to do with the car starting?

[george kujanski]

It shouldn't affect it at all...bad wire, bad coil terminal? What kind of ignition do you have? If std ignition, connect a wire from the bat to the coil + terminal and see if it starts. If so, the wiring path to the coil is at fault.

You may need to change the coil to confirm/deny if the terminal is wierd......that's the only thing I can think of that the meter would affect. Are you sure the meter was set to measure voltage?

George

[Formulas]

All engine ground paths Good ?... In my youth I had a cut out ignition issue, there was a 12 gage black wire that branched out of the engine harness at the accelerator bracket that I didn't connect back to the accell. bracket bolt after a intake change and it was causing intermittent ignition as it bounced off of the valve cover

[goat1964-2004]

Changed the coil with no change. All grounds on engine good, even installed a 12 ga from the TB base directly to the battery to insure the FI would be noise free.

The car will start after 20-30 seconds of cranking and almost "almost starts". Just seems very odd that with the multi-meter connected to coil + and other lead to ground with scale set to DC volts, the cars starts right up. I even checked the dizzy body to insure its grounded.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Is one person holding the meter while another cranks the car?

Just thinking that contacts for IGN-2 might be worn and one person turns the key, a little more or less, than the other.

[WARPed]

what voltage did you get? 12v? if not it can be the source of your problem. run a wire directly off the battery + terminal and see if it starts, naturally you will need to disconnect the wire to shut the motor off

[steve25]

So let me get this straight, your main reason for going EFI on a stock motor was due to hard starting be it hot of cold?
I know things can get maddening at times with tuff issues , but do you think the factory would release a car off the assy line if it even took 10 seconds of cranking to start?

Where one easy way to prove out the ingition system.

Get another person to help you and hook up your timing light to any plug wire then have the other person crank the car, do you get / see a steady light flash happening at cranking rpm, if not your not getting good spark , if you are then you into fuel questions .

Here's some things to keep in mind when flushing a fuel problem out.

When a motor is up to temp it needs 1 part fuel to 12 parts air to light off good, when a motor is cold it needs just about the opposite fuel to air ratio.

In light of this if you have done 20 seconds worth of cranking when cold and the motor still has not lit off then pull some spark plugs as they should not look wet , this would mean that your EFI does not know that the motor is cold.

Have every smelled a rich condition at the tail pipes after 30 serconds of cold cranking, has the motor put out black smoke when it has finally kicked over cold?