...lastest in "No-Start" Saga..

I jumpered fuse 7 to 5 to check the pumps and they're both making the required sounds to indicate that they're not completly dead.

I'm still not so sure if the pressure is correct or not.

When I disconnect the inlet to the (firewall mounted) fuel filter there is a significant amount of fuel coming out but I'm not so sure if it is correct or not or if it would support the pressures required with the system when it's closed. (Again, as I indicated in my previous post, it's not like its shooting out of the line with a great force either. It comes out with enough volume to make a mess but not "shooting" out.)

I'm gonna try to get a pressure gauge on it and see what it can do with the system closed.

When I connect the line back and open the input to the cold start valve it also looks to be about the same flow rate as when the inlet was opened so I am assuming the filter is not clogged.

(For those not familiar with my situation the car just stopped one day when going down the road. No sputtering or lurching or anything. Just dead. The car WILL start when I spray starting fluid into the intake manifold so I am not condsidering the ingition to be the problem and when I hook up a spare fuel injector to one of the injector harness's it does click rapibly when I try to start the car so, for now, I am eliminating the injector/injector circuits as well.

My Haynes manuel talks of a "fuel distribution system" and I am wondering if this could be faulty and be preventing the fuel from getting to the injectors.

(As I indicated earlier, the fuel appears to be getting to the cold start valve but I will be removing the valve tonight to see if the fuel is actually being delivered with sufficient pressure to spray out into the intake.)

It is somewhat confusing as I do show fuel "flowing" to the cold start valve (indicating that the filter isn't clogged) but for all I know the cold start valve may never have worked so I'll be checking it tonight.

Another curious point is that what looks to me to be the return line for the fuel system has no fuel coming out whenever I jumper fuze 7 to 5 (turn on both pumps without trying to start the car). The line is a aluminume line that runs in parallel with the inlet line which contains the fuel filter. Would someone please enlighten me on this and whether or not fuel should be flowing back to the tank when I turn on the pumps.

I would expect that return fuel would be flowing out of this line if I opened it.

Can someone please explain the operating characteristics of the fuel distribution system and it's possible failure modes especially if one would result in my no-start (e.g. "no fuel") scenerio.

There also seems to be talk of a Bentley manual for these cars (which I know are much better than the Haynes manual that I have. I have a '85 528e BMW and own a Bentley for it and it goes into much greater detail for working on it than a Haynes I have for the car.)

So here I am, wishing that if someone has a Bently manual for this car I would greatly appreciate a copy (scanned to PDF format) of the appropriate section with troublshooting the fuel distribution module or if someone could just tell me what it says since it would take me a week to get one from Amazon.

I'm gonna try to keep plugging away but I would greatly apprecaite any input from anyone that may have some info in regard to my problem.

my email is rblack528@hotmail.om

I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks for all inputs

(By the way, if someone knows these engines very well then I would appreciate it if you could email me your phone number so I can discuss it with you directly.)

It is my girlfriends car so there is serious brownie points here if I can get this thing fixed with minimum expense (e.g. fix it myself)!

Thanks again

Rick