Alpine 310s (GT) 1982 will not start (Sudden Issue)

Hello everyone,

I have a question about my Alpine 310s and a recent problem. I am hoping you can tell me a couple of diagnostics steps related to the Alpine and what you may have seen yourselves.

Suddenly, the car will not start. I have never had this issue in the past, but we were doing some work on it in my buddies garage and it was quite humid (not sure if relevant, but only change since).

I drove the car to my buddies shop about 2 months ago where we replaced a Brake Master and Slave Cylinder and replaced a throttle cable... When attempting to start it up to test out the clutch, it simply would not start...

I have diagnosed the following so far:

1. No spark condition: I replaced all spark plugs
2. Still no spark condition: I replaced coil (used a high performance Acel generic)
3. Now I get very good spark, but still will not start
4. Put fuel in carburator and directly in cylinders (thru spark plug holes) and it only occassionaly fires perhaps one brief pop but will not fire more than 1x or so during cranking.

Can you advise what you would try next please?

This is mind boggling... I mean, I have spark, air, compression and fuel... what am I missing?

Thank you very much in advance,

Gary E.
Alpine Racing

[mettersl]

Are you sure there is a spark all the time (GTA ATmo, bit A310, but very similar engine)?
I had something similar with mine and it turned out the ballast resistor connection behind the coil was loose. This meant I got a spark on the starter, but it stopped when I stopped cranking.
The coil on a GTA is a 6v coil with 12v applied when the starter is running, I don't have the wiring chart for a 310 to check.
I have also worked on a car where the ignition control box (grey thing bu the coil) failed...giving some odd timing and intermittent spark.
You should get a spark of you wave a magnet about under the distributor cap, but disconnect the king lead first if you plan that.
Lee

My guess is no fuel getting to the carb ....... To check that the pump is working ( assuming it has the same set up as the V6 GTA) .... remove the flexible fuel line where it enters the carb ........ get an empty bottle and put the fuel line in it ...... get someone to crank the engine and see if the pump starts and delivers fuel into the bottle.
The pump will only work when the engine is running or cranking.......... this is a safety feature to stop the fuel pumping after an accident if the engine stops with the ign still switched on.
Should fuel start pumping when cranking .... once again, if it has the same set up as the GTA ....... check the pic below and if it has a solenoid cut off valve, which is screwed into the idle jet ...... the round cylindrical item with a black line on it ..... check that it is not loose ........ then with the ign switched on, remove the spade connector, and touch the lead onto the solenoid spade, and you should hear it click as you touch on and off.
Try that and see what happens.

IMG_1746.JPG

It's also possible that the lead to the fuel cut-off valve has accidentally become disconnected. It's easily done if you've been working around that area.

Are you sure the new throttle cable is correct?

Reason I ask, is from bitter experience I changed a twist grip on a Suzuki GS750 a few years ago and it didn't let the throttle go to its stop.......I.E it was always open a bit, long and short of the tail, it wouldn't start because the vacuum through the carbs wasn't great enough to pull the fuel up, ..........bigger hole....slower air.....no sucky sucky...

Took me half a day of pulling the bank of carbs off, blowing out jets, resetting float heights etc.............only after I put the carbs back with the cable disconnected it fired up and sat idling like nothing had ever been wrong.........DOH !..............