running on front 2 cylinders and wont recharge...

[sebazztard]

well, i got around to fixing my trunk lock , thinking that was draining my battery (brand new) and i went to jump my car and it took forever to finally fire. when it did, it was running horribly. i pulled the plug wires from the top(coil pack?) and the rear 2 didnt do any difference, but the front 2 the car changed from horrible to worse, and finally pulling the plug on the front passenger, it died. went to restart car and no power from battery. anyone can give me some help, i would appreciate it before tossing money at it.

[sebazztard]

gonna take the alternator to get tested... post results when i get back

[RJ93SS]

sounds like either shitty battery, bag grounding for battery, coil pack or ignitor or all, or bad coil pack or ignitor

i would charge your battery, do the grounding mod, replace all your electrical connections that have to do with your battery, power to starter,alternator, battery to fuse box, and clean everything with a wire wheel

[RJ93SS]

well, i got around to fixing my trunk lock , thinking that was draining my battery (brand new) and i went to jump my car and it took forever to finally fire. when it did, it was running horribly. i pulled the plug wires from the top(coil pack?) and the rear 2 didnt do any difference, but the front 2 the car changed from horrible to worse, and finally pulling the plug on the front passenger, it died. went to restart car and no power from battery. anyone can give me some help, i would appreciate it before tossing money at it.

having the car run on 2 cylinders will definitely not charge your battery, so while your car was running it used whatever power you had left

[sebazztard]

first, thanks for the replys. i had the alternator tested and its running 100%, couldnt be better. so i put everything back together, ran another ground from the battery to the body, and i still have the problem(is this whats considerd the ground mod?). so 2 cylinders are not producing enough power to recharge the battery...? makes sense. altho i did notice a slight difference after i tried starting the car again that i did have little juice left (then went dead), prior to that i had nothing at all after running it. this all happened random, worked perfect then this. well i gotta head to work, im gonna try getting some yard parts to see ifs the electrical stuff giving me the problem, theres a few first gens still around...surprising. thanks again.

[RJ93SS]

search grounding mod, grounding your battery means pretty much nothing, your car is what is grounded. you want your battery grounde to the block and body,your body grounded to the block.
run ground wire, i'd use 4 gauge, from your strut tower to the engine to the intake to the bottom of your coil pack to your alternator bracket to your ignitor to the other strut tower to your battery to your body, you get the idea? make sure all the wires are connected as if they were one. you might notice better running, less hesitation, windows roll up better, lights brighter ect ect. it does not have to be that particular order.

when i was getting ready to put my intercooler in i took my ignitor off its body bracket to relocate it, before i relocated it i had to start it to check something, and with out my ignitor bolted to the body(grounded) it ran like absolute shit and it was only running on two cylinders, same problem you had. this mod is especially good if your car is high mileage and or rusty. be sure to sand down any ground connections and good luck, i hope this helps.

[sebazztard]

thanks for the info, i will be tackling this tomorrow. yes very high mileage (330+) but ran smooth like new and then i started it today and this happened.

[sebazztard]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/90-97-Su ... 0098755128

this is the part you are referring to right? im not getting any spark from the back 2. gonna try the free mod for sure, then i will go grab one from a yard if it doesnt help. obd2 2.2's wont swap?

[wfoote]

A quick look at the 92 FSM wiring diagrams fig 25 shows the alternator output going through a fusible link to the battery. Given the symptoms you describe if the link was blown the car would run off the battery but not charge it back up. I am going to guess that once it is started it will run as long as you want it to with as many accessories as you want and then won't start.
A comment was made that if the engine is only running on two cylinders it won't charge the battery. I may be parsing words here, but if you can get the engine above a couple thousand RPM there should be plenty of current available to charge the battery, the alternator doesn't care how it got spun up as long as there is a field voltage available.

[RJ93SS]

A quick look at the 92 FSM wiring diagrams fig 25 shows the alternator output going through a fusible link to the battery. Given the symptoms you describe if the link was blown the car would run off the battery but not charge it back up. I am going to guess that once it is started it will run as long as you want it to with as many accessories as you want and then won't start.
A comment was made that if the engine is only running on two cylinders it won't charge the battery. I may be parsing words here, but if you can get the engine above a couple thousand RPM there should be plenty of current available to charge the battery, the alternator doesn't care how it got spun up as long as there is a field voltage available.

yes that is true, but do you want to bring up your rpm on two cylinders

[evolutionmovement]

I'd just swap the plug wires front and rear to see if the two dead cylinders move. The ignition system is waste spark, firing every 180* and the cylinder pairs are 180* apart in rotation. And you shouldn't disconnect the wires while the engine is running as it's no longer grounded at that point and can damage the coil pack.

[sebazztard]

ok so i got around to working on the car today. i grabbed an ignitor and a coil pack off my parents parts car (gotta love parts cars) and an extra ground wire from the bracket. came back home, sanded down every grounding point that i was working with, added the extra ground from the ignitor bracket to the block, and sure enough, car runs like it should. it was a big "thank god". thanks everyone for the help, it made this process go by so much easier.

on another note, the car still doesnt recharge like it should. i let it idle for abt 15 min to charge up the battery, turned it off, fired back up a little sluggish. i did this about 4 times or so. came back 30 minutes later and battery was dead. i hate to admit this, but its a walmart battery...are these seriously junk? this would be the 2nd one ive destroyed by draining, if it is the problem. im going to get this tested, just wondering if anyone else had troubles. thanks again.

and to reply to the "shouldnt d/c wires while engine is running", hindsight is 20/20, ive never worked with coilpacks before, always diizzy. thanks for the information.

[sebazztard]

A quick look at the 92 FSM wiring diagrams fig 25 shows the alternator output going through a fusible link to the battery. Given the symptoms you describe if the link was blown the car would run off the battery but not charge it back up. I am going to guess that once it is started it will run as long as you want it to with as many accessories as you want and then won't start.
A comment was made that if the engine is only running on two cylinders it won't charge the battery. I may be parsing words here, but if you can get the engine above a couple thousand RPM there should be plenty of current available to charge the battery, the alternator doesn't care how it got spun up as long as there is a field voltage available.

where is this fusable link located? sry dont have an fsm, you would think 12 years looking at these cars id know where everything was...lol

[evolutionmovement]

Letting a lead-acid battery sit drained can damage it in a day. The longer it sits, the lower the charge it's allowed to get, the shorter its life. That's why they have deep cycle batteries that can withstand a little more abuse in that area and why, even when stored in optimal conditions, we'd lose 2/3 of the batteries we removed from boats and stored for the winter. I still wonder about the alternator. Most guys testing them don't know how to test it properly and the test may not find an intermittent diode pack issue even if they do.

[sebazztard]

getting battery tested now, gotta wait nearly an hour, dead dead... on another note, when i was taking off the positive, the terminal broke...perhaps it was the problem to begin with? find out soon...

[sebazztard]

damn battery tested junk... didnt even have it a month. thats it for walmart batteries. picked up a new battery and a terminal and we'll see what happens tomorrow, too dark to work.

[wfoote]

The fusible link is in the fusebox under the hood.

My personal belief is you can't start troubleshooting a problem like this without the charging system and battery being at 100%.

good luck

[sebazztard]

i agree, a few years ago i prob wouldnt test stuff out like i do now. im pretty confident ive nailed my problem. ill find out for sure tomorrow. i did in fact check all those fuses, i just wanted to make sure it wasnt stuffed under something that wasnt visible. thanks for the good words.

[RJ93SS]

ok so i got around to working on the car today. i grabbed an ignitor and a coil pack off my parents parts car (gotta love parts cars) and an extra ground wire from the bracket. came back home, sanded down every grounding point that i was working with, added the extra ground from the ignitor bracket to the block, and sure enough, car runs like it should. it was a big "thank god". thanks everyone for the help, it made this process go by so much easier.

on another note, the car still doesnt recharge like it should. i let it idle for abt 15 min to charge up the battery, turned it off, fired back up a little sluggish. i did this about 4 times or so. came back 30 minutes later and battery was dead. i hate to admit this, but its a walmart battery...are these seriously junk? this would be the 2nd one ive destroyed by draining, if it is the problem. im going to get this tested, just wondering if anyone else had troubles. thanks again.

and to reply to the "shouldnt d/c wires while engine is running", hindsight is 20/20, ive never worked with coilpacks before, always diizzy. thanks for the information.

for your battery to charge, the rpm's need to be above 1000, at idle, it will probably drain your battery more than charge it.

anytime that you do buy a new battery check the manu. date. also make sure your battery is on one of the higher shelves. leaving a battery on the cement or close to it kills it.

the broken hook up, not good, on a car with that much mileage i would change all ground and power wires, good luck

[sebazztard]

done(new pos term) and done (new ground wires from a parts car). running and charging like it should, have zero problems in that area now.

[wfoote]

So the problem turned out to be electrical, and it is now running properly?

[sebazztard]

yea, zero problems since and its been my daily (snow hit early in ny).