Fuzzbeaner

Hey folks,

My Grandma has had this Green Dynamic 88 Convertible in her garage for 10 years without running. She's the first owner, and all the numbers match, but it hasn't been run since my grandfather passed away...unfortunately. 71k miles, numbers matching on everything. It's amazing, outright.

She wants me to sell it for her, I'm going to try to convince her to let me keep it...BUT, before anything happens, I need to get it running.

I tossed a battery in and she turned over, but wasn't catching or sputtering at all. Tried spraying some fluid into the carbs to no avail. Then replaced the plugs...still no good.

Also, the brakes are frozen...or at least frozen enough to prevent me from being able to push it out in neutral.

So, how should I go about working on this thing? I'm planning to bring an inductive timing light to make sure spark's going to each cylinder the next time I go...but besides that I'm kind of at a loss. I'm so used to dealing with newer cars...my '97 A6 (which I love) has a check engine light when something's not working, and I have a 30$ cable that connects it to my computer and tells me what's up. This is a hell of a lot harder...though roomier! I couldn't believe how luxurious it was to work with the plugs.

TIA for any advice you guys can give!
-Jeff

Oldsmaniac

Awesome car!!....If ya cant keep it buy it from your grandmother......Firstly you have to smell the gas thats in the tank...if it doesnt smell like gas dont add any fresh gas because you will need to remove the gastank and flush out the varnished gas thats in there. I made the mistake and didnt do this resulting in bending all the pushrods to the intake valves due to that varnish gumming up the valves!....You will need to pull all the wheels and drums to see which shoes/ones are stuck. Its going to be a labor of love because you will need to go thru the entire brake system should you decide to fix the car. It will be easy to check for spark at a plug....just crank the engine and put a screwdriver in the wire boot and hold the metal part near a ground and you should see spark. Most likely the points in the distributer have oxidized and need cleaning. Put some time and effort into it and you should be ok....you can learn a lot with a project like this....Good Luck!