'86 eta first start attempts

[Delanoso]

To start off with, this is a car I took off the road several years back. It ran OK at the time but I had just bought a new truck. When the water pump broke, I figured I'd hold off and do some serious work I thought it needed. Fast forward several years and now I'm finally getting back to the car.

What I've done to this point:

Brake/clutch system rebuild
Timing belt, tensioner and water pump
Cooling system--radiator, thermostat, all hoses.
Fuel delivery--both pumps, all rubber lines, filter
Ignition--plugs, cap, rotor.

More detail on that work as needed. The goal was to do a basic refresh, crank it and see what happens. What happens at this point is that it fires up for a short period and then dies (I have a short video of this if it's helpful). Consecutive attempts to start it don't fire. If I give it a few minutes then it'll repeat the short burn.

I *think* that it's running that few seconds on fuel from the cold start valve. So that tells me that I've got spark and fuel at least to the cold start valve, which should mean I've got fuel to the rail (because I've replaced the hoses that connect the cold start to the rail and I know it's clear). I've done the checks from the Bentley on the ECU and every thing seems to check out, including the reference sensor and speed sensor. I can't hear the injectors click as suggested (how loud is that click?) but I do have battery voltage on the correct pins. I've also verified a couple of the injector connectors and I show battery voltage at the injector.

What are the chances the injectors are so clogged that none of them are opening at all?!? Am I missing something more common?

Thanks for any help offered!

[Nathanp17]

Its loud enough to notice it, i did the bentley pin out check on my 86 eta and could hear the click. Its almost like a relay clicking, you might have bad ground maybe. Something helpful for me was to have a fuel pressure gauge tied into the system, then try the pinout and watch if the gauge goes down then you know they are spraying.

[e30onBBSs]

You should post the video

[Seawolf]

Check the vacuum line off the fuel regulator, if the diaphragm has perished then fuel will feed directly into the intake manifold and flood the engine - your symptoms sound like this problem. You can double check by looking in the intake boot for fuel.

[Delanoso]

It settles at a normal idle for a flash and then dies. I've tried to follow a number of trouble shooting guides but they all seem to lead to "ECU is dead." nothing has made any reference to the fuel pressure regulator but that makes sense. I'll check into that.

https://youtu.be/ir-sVW94-7s