Tried spark, gas and compression, all good to go. Wife drove the car and says it drove fine the day before, but the next day I get a call at work; You guys will love this, She tells me the battery is dead and she didn't leave anything on.

I get home, opened the car door to pop the hood and noticed the interior light came on about half bright. Put the starter/charger on and on impulse tried to start the car. Motor turns over as normal but no start. I thought very briefly about trying to explain what difference is between dead battery and car won't start, but chickend out. How do you explain to your wife that of course the battery will be dead if you.... it never goes well.

Seriously, pulled a plug and got snap, snap snap, nice. smelled a hint of gas on the plug. Hmm, got a spark and gas, lets check compression: 130lb goodnuf for 130K. But maybe the gas isn't right.

Call me nuts, pulled a pump and checked off the car. good. Put voltage to the pumps and they worked ok. Checked the relay N16/4. (Mine is not where the MB manual says! It is swapped places with N6!) I took N6 to work thinking it was N16/4 and swapped it with a friends 560sel. N6 is good. But I ordered a new one for 60$ mine is original. At home I couldn't find enough pins on the N6 to jump the pumps . Hmm, Lets check N6 Walla! N16/4 pins. Tested the pumps: ~4Amps and >1 liter in under 40 sec. What the heck. now I have a spare N16/4 and the 560 still won't start.

Got gas supply, compression, spark. Now what? another relay? inside the CIS?

Get something solid like a wood stick or rubber mallet and hit the fuel pump and/or filter a couple of times.(in rear close to exhaust tail section.)

If it starts up, you know what in need of replacing.

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

I checked the fuel pump. delivery is greater than 1 liter in 40 seconds.

Pumps are fine.

Check the CPS (800-1200ohm IIRC), and then check the Coil.

I worked in Auburn from Jan-Nov of this year

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1991 300E - 212K and rising fast...

Check the vacuum line for the brake booster, when they fail the leak is large enough to cause the car not to start. The plastic tubing cracks, most of the time right at the union to the metal fittings.

Worse case scenario:

Did you check compression on the drivers side? If not, it would be a good idea. When the timing chain rails snap, the exhaust valves bend on the drivers side head only. You could also pull the drivers side valve cover, the bent valves will be obvious. This failiure can happen without warning on a start attempt, and the car will have run fine before. 130lbs of compression is pretty low, but gauges vary in quality so I can't comment on that.

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"I was a dirty bird, Carol's not grungey - she's *****in" John Milner....American Graffiti

what is the CPS? and IIRC? I understand 800 - 1200 Ohms. (800-1200ohm IIRC), "

Thanks, what did you think of Auburn? What were you doing here?

And I'll look at the vacuum leak possibility. And I hope its not the Drivers side valves. I checked the pass side for accessability. Battery seems to be having more effort to tuen the crank. I think I changed the chain at 100K but honestly have checked slack lately.

Gary

Edward, You might have it with the skipped chain. I pulled both covers. timing mark was at 30 passed TDC. Backed the crank to tdc. #1 piston lobes up as at TDC. #8 is not where it should be: The intake valve lobe is at peak down and the exhaust is past peak. The chain has about 3/4 tooth slack so I can't back it up enough to see how many teeth were jumped.

Is it possible it only skipped one or two teeth and I can put on a new chain on and walk away unscathed?

CPS = crank position sensor.
IIRC = if I recall correctly

Sounds like a CPS. I had a CPS fail on my Crown Vic. I could tell on that car becaus while cranking, the engine light stayed lit.

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1986 560 SEL
1960 Ranchero
1970 Cougar XR7
2002 Crown Vic Sport
1992 F150

Anybody know if the left cam should line up with the line on the cam tower? covers are off, cams seem lined up OK. Got good compression on 3 of the 4 left, but having trouble getting he tester screwed in to #6.

CPS is measuring 900Ohms and I do get a spark. I saw in the manual: no cps no spark.

I will get a better compression tester on it tomorrow.

If the valves are bent shouldn't there be some visible indicator?