The fuel pump relay will stop a 380 dead in its tracks. It is fairly easy to test by putting your hand on the fuel pump while someone turns the ignition on and cranks the starter. You should feel it vibrate. If it does not, pull the relay out and look at it. Figure out where the pins marked 30 and 87 go in the socket. Make sure you have 12V at the 30 socket. Then jumper those sockets and see if the pump vibrates. If it does, then the problem is most likely the fuel pump relay. If it does not, then you may have a dead pump.

If the pump is alive, though, try to start the car. If it won't start, then there needs to be some serious troubleshooting.

One somewhat remote possibility is that someone has messed with the mixture and gotten it extremely lean, and that it simply is not getting enough fuel for a cold start.

If your problem is no spark, it is a completely different set of tests. Make sure of the obvious - the rotor is installed and all the wires hooked up. If that is all good, I would suspect the TDD box (silver, on the left fenderwell).

Good luck.

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe