CSV Trouble

[Amanda]

Yesterday my 1966 230SL was running a little rough.  Some misfiring and a couple of backfires.  The car has not been driven in about a year before yesterday.  We had some difficulty starting the car a few times yesterday and we had some fuel leaking from the cold start valve.  Today, the car won't start at all.  Turns over, but doesn't start.

I removed the cold start valve and cleaned everything.  The o-ring had turned to mush so I had to improvised with one I got at Autozone.  The jets are spraying fuel (by that I mean that I was able to spay WD-40 through them) and the spring loaded needle is moving freely.  I blew through the mesh screen and was getting air through it, but it was difficult.  I tried using a jumper from the solenoid valve to the battery and I could hear the solenoid engage, but the car still wouldn't start.

I'm out of ideas at this point, but it seems like I'm not getting fuel.  Can anyone offer up any ideas?

[ja17]

Sounds like the ignition points may have closed up.  Easy to check, Pull the main coil wire at the distributor and hold it close to grounded metal on engine while someone cranks. You should get spark. If not change points, in a pinch cleaning and re-gap the points.  Don't forget to slightly lube the distributor cam.

If spark is ok, check fuel supply by jumping the CSV while cranking the engine. ]

If it still wont start, pull a couple of spark plugs to see what they look like. If they are wet and black replace them.

[Amanda]

Thanks very much for the information.  We ended up deciding this was beyond the scope of our capabilities (or at least the time we had available to devote to fixing it, especially given that the car had gotten stranded on the street), and so we had it trucked to a mechanic (we used Mike Shiffer / Euromeccanica, a somewhat local place that had been recommended by another member).  It was indeed the ignition points - they had frozen up likely because the car hadn't been driven regularly for quites some time.  Mike was great, fixed the problem and gave her an overall tune up, and we are happily back on the road.