I have a 1987 760 4cyl turbo. Car has been sitting for many years. I am not getting spark and have been going through diagnostics to resolve, but I am seeing that the gauges do not move when I turn the key and crank the engine. I believe the tach should move, and also the fuel gauge should show fuel level(assuming the gauge works), but I get nothing from any of them. The warning lights all come on as normal, just no gauge activity. Is there a known issue or part that might cause this?

When we stopped using our '90 744 TI, we began having small no start problems with the car.

I talked to a tech at my dealer who was a 740 lover.

He gave me a small tube of dielectric grease and told me to unplug electrical connectors, clean them as much as I could, add the grease ( DIELECTRIC GREASE, not any other kind ) and twist tie together any that I could.

Modern cars often have dielectric grease in the connectors when they come from the factory.

Because I was using the car occasionally, I only did one at a time between each use so that I could tell if I screwed one up.

Also, check gounds - those devices that are encased in plastic have a ground wire and a connection somewhere to the engine or body. Those that are metal get their ground from physical contact. The base of the antilock tower (if you have one) is a ground for a couple of things. Also. check the little wires that may be connected to the positive battery clamp, one of mine was corroded internally and had to be cut, stripped, and soldered to the main cable. Don't forget, there is one or two ground straps from the engine to the body.

One easy way to repair or even trouble shoot a ground is to just add another one, modern cars have dozens of grounds.

It is my theory that when you drive the car, vibrations and bumps in the road move some of these connectors keeping their points of contact clean - when the car sits, there is just corrosion.

Have you read the FAQ - it contains a lot of good advice.

Once, my T! would stall when I switched to high beams - the problem was a ground strip in the left front fender - the high beams were using up all the ground that they shared with the ignition system! Its in the FAQ!

One last thing - a few years earlier, I had a no start and went through all the tests that I could fins in several books - no luck - the main computer was gone.

A pick and pull that had over 800 Volvos - mostly 740s - had 150 NA computers, but NO turbo computers - they could not even find one at another junk yard - This told me a lot about the reliability of the turbo computers!

My brother had a Toyota pick-up with a supercharger - when its computer failed, Toyota had no replacements - racing teams had bought up all the spare ones that Toyota had produced - he had to convert his engine to a NA - cost him a thousand dollors or so even though he did not have to pay labor.

Thanks James. I have found the connections to be clean, almost amazingly so. The car is lowwww miles, and was in a garage all its life. I agree that dielectric grease is a great thing to add to prevent corrosion. I am going through the paces of diagnostic procedures, and I thought the no gauge movement was odd. I read that if that happens it is indicative of a specific problem, and I 'think' that problem is a bad hall sensor. The disti has been replaced with new, but with a generic one, so I am going to buy a bosch unit and see what happens. I am also testing circuits as well. I did manage to find an ECU which is on its way to me.

The 50$ generic distributor is fine. My original juzt needs new seals but, it was easier to purchase a complete distributor Check the cap and rotor for erosion of the electrodes. Dielectric grease the spark plug cables.