I was driving the '88 300 CE to the body shop this morning, after a modest accident last Friday. It died a couple of times, restarted, then stalled and had a hard time starting. It finally died and wouldn't start at all. Stuck at an intersection, I'm told I had traffic backed up for a mile or so-quite an accomplishment in a town of less than 40k souls.

I'd like help getting a handle on why it wouldn't start. It seemed like it was not getting fuel. I say "seemed", but have no idea, really. This is what I know:

-The accident was not severe. My son rear-ended a monster truck and hit their hitch receiver. Hood, grill and sheet metal between lights is munched. Hood can't be opened, so I don't know conditions under the hood. No fluid leaking.

-The morning of the accident, we had to disengage all the fuses one by one to get the radio to turn off (the fuse that the fuse schedule indicated was the one had no effect). I couldn't check the fuses this AM because I couldn't raise the hood.

-The car has been running rough and stalling for some time, especially in reverse.

-My mechanic assessed the problem as a "carboned up fuel distributor". I'm not convinced: fuel distributors don't show up as common culprits for rough idle and stalling on this board.

-I ordered a fuel pump relay recently (on the strength of posts on this forum for similar stalling problems), but received the wrong part, so don't know if it would have helped.

-the Overvoltage Relay was replaced about 2-1/2 years ago. It helped a lot at the time. I assume it is still good.

So:

I think the stalling before is likely related to today's refusal to start. In my mind this points to a fuel pump or the electronics that control it (fuse, relay, etc).

The fuse could be the culprit-in my experience, the last thing you messed with is likely to be the cause of a new problem.

Do you gentlemen have any ideas? This may be moot, if the adjuster totals the car.

Is a "carboned up fuel distributor" a common problem?

Thanks

Louis