Ok,

little history - The Monty was awaiting to have her brakes and rotors done over time, and periodically I would crank her and let her run for about 2 hours so the fuel wouldn't sour.

The last time I did she cut off after running for a good spell of time. She may have ran out of gas. Which since then I have put five gallons of petro in. Thinking the Monty was empty of gas I recranked it and still will not start.

When I try to start it; it will crank and keep trying to crank until it just stops. Then I have to re-crank it again. We were having issues with it intermittently not doing anything when you turned the key. But that only lasted a few minutes and then it would start. Could a bad ignition switch do this?

I am thinking that perhaps the fuel pump filter is clogged and fuel can not pass. So I wanted to take out the fuel pump and inspect. I can not get the pump loosen at the main fuel line. Where one side requires a 19mm flare and the other side the 14mm flare. I have soaked in fluid in hopes of loosening it. Doesn't budge.

How do I get it loosened?

So, since checking the filter is not happening at the moment. I wanted to check the plugs for spark. Do I need to take off the pendulum to access the spark plugs? It looks to me to be a mess of work to get to them.

Should I be looking at something else aside from these two items?

Thanks for your time!

G
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Check the crank position sensor.
It tells the ECU that the motor is turning and to fire the plugs. If its not working or sending a weak signal the ECU doesn't know if the motor is turning or what position the crank is in rotation. There should be a plug with two wires running into it up by the butterfly valve under the plastic engine cover. You can read the signal to see if its working. The check procedure should be in the Montero FSM. The actual sensor is down by the crank pulley in the front of the motor. If I remember correctly you have to pull timing cover and belt to get to it I think.

This is more reminiscent of bad power supply to the starter. I once had a similar situation that started on me with my 1989 Dodge Raider back in 2009 and it took me until 2013 to fully fix what I was experiencing. Check this thread over on ExPo: Twitchy Ignition Revisited - 1989 Raider 3.0L

Now, let's talk about starting.

• You need three things to start an engine.
  
• Fuel
  
• Spark
  
• Oxygen

You obviously have crank from the starter, but you should consider looking at the power supply. You described that sometimes it does nothing. That is a power supply issue that can be remedied by using a relay as described in the "Twitchy" thread. So what's left, I think JoeDirt may be onto some thing here with his comment about the crank position sensor. I would use a spark tester on your #1 plug wire or perhaps a timing light to see if there is current coming through the spark plug cable. Using this would tell you that if it lights up you have spark.

Here is the one I would recommend using:




Next test to see if you have fuel. Sometimes if you hold the gas pedal down while trying to start it, you will smell gasoline from under the hood or the tail pipe. If not, you described the Montero perhaps running dry out of gas. You may be in a situation where you have vapor locked in your fuel lines. Remove the gas cap and try to start it. If it is vapor lock from running the lines dry, it should fire up. But it sounds like you are doing fuel pump work anyway.

As for Oxygen, as long as you have not slipped your timing belt (highly unlikely, broken timing belt or broken crank bolt may be in play here) or anything like that, you should be fine.