troubleshooting a taurus

[RD Rick]

mike wrote: 

>...
>The taurus has a very hard time starting after sitting overnite or 
>over perhaps 8-10 hours.  Takes a large amount of cranking with no 
>firing, then stumbles slowly to life.  Ambient temperature doesn't 
>seem to have any effect.  Computer reveals no fault codes, pump and 
>filter are good.
>
>Isn't there a fuel accumulator which should maintain fuel pressure 
>when sitting?  If this was faulty would it allow pressure to drop - 
>forcing the pump to charge the system again before it could start?

No accumulator, it needs to be a leak-free system, for obvious reasons.
It does sound like fuel pressure has gone away.  Assuming this is a V6, 
(you don't say, and you don't even say what year) there is a Shrader 
valve near the front where you can measure fuel pressure.  It should be 
35 psi at idle, and about 25-30 after sitting.

Turning on the ign should cause fuel pump to run a couple of seconds, 
then stop.  Try switching on and off once or twice before starting to 
see if that helps.

EFI in my '86 Sable V6 has been almost flawless in 115K miles.  Had to 
correct a weak idle recently by de-coking the air bypass.

RD