HELP! No SPARK (FIXED!!) Now got starter issue. PAge 2

[Florin1]

swapped ECU's, still nothing... >:(

[brweber352]

What's up man, I thought this thing was pretty much wraped up. Never stays simple, does it? LOL.

So, you moved your ingniter and it fell onto the starter positive and it made a spark? Now it cranks but doesn't start and you've checked all the fuses including the fusable link, and all is good? You now have no spark coming from the coil?

Right off the bat, I would suspect you fried the igniter as soon as it touched the positve terminal. Do you have a spare ingniter to throw on it real quick, to check? If I remember correctly, the igniter has a flat shiny side that needs a good body contact to ground through, this is probably what touched your starter terminal.

Brian

[Florin1]

yup, i swapped my other igniter off the other car, and still nothing. I also swapped the cam and knock sensor, and the ECU!!! Still nothing! Man i am so frustrated and annoyed... Is there a relay or fuse anywhere else beside the main box under the hood or kick panel?

[Florin1]

Bump for new edit on my first post...

[vrg3]

Does the Check Engine light come on when you turn the ignition on without starting the car? Do you hear the fuel pump prime at the same time? If you hook up the green connectors, do you hear any of the relays or solenoids cycling? If not, the ECU probably isn't getting power.

When you checked all the fuses under the hood, did you just check the regular standard ATO fuses or did you also check the funny-looking ones? Check SBF-2 in particular. Make sure you're testing them under load, too. Or just replacing them.

I suppose it's possible that a contact in the ignition relay fried. It's way up under the driver side of the dash -- a little brown box.

[Florin1]

CEL does come on. Yes fuel pump primes. When i hook up green connector and key on, yes i hear all kinds of clicking, and fan cycles off/on. I Pulled out each funny looking fuse and put my multimeter on them and there was like .8 ohms trough each one. Fusible link as well. What do you mean test them under load? Like crank the engine and test them? I will try to find the ignition relay...

Oh and how do i test the ignitor, crank sensor?? I turned the car on and put a test light on it. only 1 wire lit up my light on the ignitor harness, and maf harness, and coil harness...

[vrg3]

Hmm. Weird.

Yes, what I mean by testing under load is to measure while some current is being drawn through them. If you're getting enough current to cycle all the solenoids, though, that's probably okay.

I would be very surprised if somehow both your cam and crank sensors died as a result of that short.

Are you getting +12v on the yellow/red wire on the connector that goes to the coil pack?

And the black wire going to the ignitor has good continuity to ground?

You can see if the ECU is trying to fire the ignitor by unplugging the ignitor and watching the voltage on the yellow/blue or green/white wires on that connector. You should see them switching between ground and +12v as the engine turns.

You can see if the ignitor is amplifying that signal by plugging it back in, unplugging the coil pack, and watching the voltage on the red/green and yellow wires going to the ignitor. Again, you should see them switching between ground and +12v (in the reverse pattern as compared to the above test). Test again at the same color wires at the coil pack connector.

If you see those signals, and you the ignitor's black wire is grounded and the coil pack's yellow/red wire has +12v, I don't understand how you could not have spark. Hopefully one of those things is missing.

[Florin1]

SHE'S ALIVE!!!

[vrg3]

Yay! Whadja do?

[Florin1]

i HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MADE IT WORK EITHER... All i did since you tld me what to do, was pulled out the two green sbf fuses, which checked out to be good in the resistance test, and swapped them. I also took off the ignitor, and cleaned up the paint around its mounting location. And she started right up.... I dont get it. So i swaped the ignitor, back to the location i want it to be at now (bolted to the transmission) and it starts again... So what was the issue? The sbf fuse was bad even though it showed .8 ohms on my meter??

[Florin1]

i really appreciate you chiming in brother... I could not find HOW to test the ignitor and harness under load. At least its now posted for future guys.

No to figure out why my reverse lights stay on in all gears except neutral... (just did my trans swap at->mt)

[vrg3]

It's possible that SBF-2 was bad, yes...

I believe SBF-1 feeds the power locks and windows. Do yours work?

[Florin1]

yeah, they still work
By the way, thanks for coming back to the site. You were mia for a long time. Its good to have a guru back on here...

[Florin1]

next issue: My car doesnt want to always start. I assume it is a starter issue.
I'll go to start the car, and it just clicks.
I've tried banging on the starter, but it doesnt help.
I also, just replaced that little black single wire connector that clips on to the back of the starter. That also didnt help.

This issue is intermittent. Like, i got 4 good starts in a row. Now, it just clicks. I can pop start the car if need be though. So what can it be? Bad starter?

[vrg3]

Thanks; it's nice to be back.

Sounds to me like bad contacts. Banging on the starter doesn't always help. The most effective way to do that, though, is to have one person hold the ignition switch in the "start" position while another person hits the solenoid with a hammer -- is that how you did it?

If I remember correctly Josh posted a writeup many years ago about replacing the contacts on his starter.

[Florin1]

No i just banged on the top side. lol. dont know what i'm doing., i'm just gonna run to pull a part and get another. They're $13.

Now off to wcss!!!

[Legacy777]

No to figure out why my reverse lights stay on in all gears except neutral... (just did my trans swap at->mt)

Has anything changed since you emailed me? From what you're describing, it sounds like the neutral switch is hooked up to the reverse lights wiring.