1983 Chrysler Imperial: starting problems
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1983 Chrysler Imperial: starting problems



I believe the asterix means the dash has either been repaired or replaced. That was one of the 80's Imperials big problems. I knew someone that bought an 81 sometime around late 83 & he had the no start problem then. There were times when he would crank it till the battery was nearly dead, then leave it 15-20 minutes & it would start immediately. We worked at the same place, so I had given him a ride over to the Chrysler dealer several times when he brought the car to be fixed. Every time I was there, they had one or two of them in the shop with lots of parts removed & stacked all over the place. I asked the mechanic working on one of them one time I was there what was wrong with them, since every time I was there, they always had at least one like that. He didn't seem to want to volunteer too much info other then to say it wouldn't start. After word came out that the cars had major problems that would require a major retrofit & that the parts to do so were in very short supply & cost $2-3 K to accomplish, he got rid of the Imperial in a hurry at a big loss.
John
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> I have a 1983 Chrysler Imperial that I purchased about a month ago. It's in pretty decent condition, but does have some rust in the rear left & right quarter panel & the bottom of the deck lid. It has 130,000 Miles on it (but there is an asterix beside where it says that, don't know what that means) and gets from 15 - 20 US MPG on a tank.
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> Right from the beginning, whenever I would start it, it would crank over a bit more than what I would expect a "normal" car to do, although I did hear from a certain mechanic that due to it's older computer, that could be normal. It always drives & idles nice though. Anyways, here's what happened: I drove my car to work friday morning (7:30 am), and it did it's usual "longer than normal" start, all was good. It sat all day at work in about say 20 C (68 F) temperature. I finished work around 5:00 pm and went to start my car. The first try I held the key in the "start" position for about 6 - 8 seconds, it just cranked, didn't fire once. This was kind of surprising, as it had never done this before. So I tried it again, nothing. After that, i tried pumping the gas pedal (I usually NEVER touch the gas pedal at all before or during starting) while I was cranking it, it actually fired one or two times but didn't start. Next, I pulled off the air cleaner cover, & I could smell gas( but it didn't appear flooded), so I left the cover off for a minute or two, then put it back on and tried again. Nothing.
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> So after that I went back inside to where I work & called AMA to send over a tow truck. Next ( about 30 mins had passed since I had last tried starting the car) I went outside again to see if I could start the car. I put the key in and cranked it...it didn't fire for a sec or two, but then caught a few times & started. For the first few seconds it ran rough, like it had too much / too little fuel, but after that it smoothed out and idled like it has always had before (it idles nice btw). So now i'm a little scared about something like this happening again (i've been driving it for about 4 days since then and it's always started). Now would any of you guys have any idea what the problem could be and what I can do to fix it? I'm also interested in why it seems to need a few excessive cranks to start.
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> Oh, and you can check out pictures of my car here:
> http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Joel Smith
> Edmonton, Alberta.
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