Cold Start Valve

[nyChris]

I was experiencing longer than normal cranking on my eta when the engine was cold, so I went through the troubleshooting procedure in the Bentley.

When the engine was 100% cold I found that the cold start valve would only spray for about 1/3 of the cranks, and when it did only for a second. Not the 8 seconds, or so it is supposed to.

Simple enough I thought I'll just replace the cold start valve and be on my way... Wrong! That little waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleser is almost $300 from Pelican.

I guess my question is. Are there anyways I can repair the one I have? I gave it some sprays with carb cleaner In an attempt to clean out whatever junk is in there, but that didn't seem to help much.

Thanks,
Chris

[NeedaE30]

rockauto.com has one for a LOT cheaper

[jlevie]

That doesn't sound as much like a bad valve as it does a problem with the controls for the valve.

[nyChris]

That doesn't sound as much like a bad valve as it does a problem with the controls for the valve.

I had thought that also at one point in the troubleshooting.

The volt reading from the BK/RD wire going from the Thermo Time Switch to the valve was sporadic, but my DMM has been slow to read voltage in the past. We thought maybe it wasn't able to read the pulses fast enough? If that even makes sense. I'm still not sure whether I should be seeing a constant 12v signal at the valve while cranking.

Why I thought it was most likely the valve is, the only time it would spray was the first attempt after giving it a blast with carb cleaner, but only for a second. My thinking was the carb cleaner was temporarily clearing the blockage, and it would be clogged almost immediately when fuel passed through.

Any advice you have is greatly appreciated.

[jlevie]

The signal to that valve is either on or off. It isn't pulsed like the injectors.