1980 fiat act like starving for fuel

[Henryfiat]

Just towed the car home from a purchased. Ran ok on test drive. Got home ,unloaded and now the engine won't run. When you turn ignition it starts for just a few seconds and then dies. This started this right after I poured some Lucas injector cleaner in the fuel tank. Any suggestion on what to look for?

[bradartigue]

1980 Fuel Injected or Carbureted?

If it is carbureted it may simply be the idle solenoid is disconnected...assuming the thing is still there. If the carb has a barrel like device where the primary idle jet should be then it should have a +12V connection.

If it is fuel injected then you need to test and see if the pump is working.

How much fuel is in the tank and how old is the fuel?

[focodave]

If injected, it sounds like the cold start valve may be working OK, but that the injectors may not be firing.
Could be a connection problem at the dual relay under the glove box, a problem with the dual relay itself (which is not extremely common), ground connections at the back of the cam boxes, and of course you need to make sure the fuel pump is running.
Also, you might want to unplug and re-plug-in the ECU to make sure you don't have a bad connection in that multi-pin connector at the ECU.

[Henryfiat]

Thxs guys, it is FI and still won't stay running for longer than 5 seconds. The fuel pump is pumping fuel only when the ignition is turn to start. When you just turn key to get power the pump does not pump. Have disconnected differnt wires amd reattached and seems like all connections are good. Where do I go to now? Change plugs today just to make sure they were firing and they are. any other ideas let me hear them. Oh yea fuel is fresh. Thxs henry

[focodave]

The fuel pump is operating properly. It will only run when the engine is being cranked over and there is air flow through the AFM, opening the AFM flap which turns on the fuel pump.
As a quick thing to check, I would unplug the connector on the coolant temperature sensor located at the front of the engine in the coolant tee.
Re-connect it and see if that solves the problem.
If not, you really need to start looking at anything related to the injector wiring, electrical connectors associated with any components and/or anything in the injector circuit(s), and the ECU (which rarely, if ever, goes bad) ----- because it sounds like the injectors are not firing.

[Henryfiat]

Thanks Dave, will try your suggestion today. I'll let you know if that works.

[focodave]

This may also help clear up any mystery about what the dual relay does and how it does it:
http://www.ratwell.com/technical/DoubleRelay.html