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88 DL sedan starting issues


torxxx
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Ok, long story short went back to work at the sooby shop in town and one of the old guys there has been workin on this car for 2 weeks trying to get it to run. He basically threw parts at it until he got frustrated.

 

SPFI EA82 in it

 

I've reset the timing belts, replaced injector, verified disty was stabbed correctly. Its got decent spark, getting fuel as far as I can tell through the injector. 150 lbs compression on every cylinder, new plugs new wires. I went through and checked everything the guy had replaced and its all correct stuff for the car. He replaced the ECU and doesnt know what one was the original so I have 3 ecu's out of random EA series cars to try with it.

 

So crank away on the engine and it doesnt really even try to fire. I did get it to run once, and it sounded good so I shut it off to put everything back together and it wouldnt restart. Weird things I've noticed compared to my 86 wagon. When cranking on my 86, all electronics get shut off temporarily (stereo, blower motor, cig lighter, lights etc) On this car, it doesnt shut anything off when cranking. Tells me there is a relay issue perhaps? I'm wondering of its a ignition relay thats sticking or not opening thats making it not want to run. I've replaced what I think is the fuel pump relay (blue connector relay stuck with the other 4 relays) Is there any other relays that I should be checking and if there is where are they located at? All fuses are good, fuseable links are good.

 

So yeah chime in guys give me some ideas on what else could be keeping this thing from starting. one out of 100 starts it started and that was it. It has to be an electrical issue some where. Thanks in advance for the responses!

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Ok, long story short went back to work at the sooby shop in town and one of the old guys there has been workin on this car for 2 weeks trying to get it to run. He basically threw parts at it until he got frustrated.

 

SPFI EA82 in it

 

I've reset the timing belts, replaced injector, verified disty was stabbed correctly. Its got decent spark, getting fuel as far as I can tell through the injector. 150 lbs compression on every cylinder, new plugs new wires. I went through and checked everything the guy had replaced and its all correct stuff for the car. He replaced the ECU and doesnt know what one was the original so I have 3 ecu's out of random EA series cars to try with it.

 

So crank away on the engine and it doesnt really even try to fire. I did get it to run once, and it sounded good so I shut it off to put everything back together and it wouldnt restart. Weird things I've noticed compared to my 86 wagon. When cranking on my 86, all electronics get shut off temporarily (stereo, blower motor, cig lighter, lights etc) On this car, it doesnt shut anything off when cranking. Tells me there is a relay issue perhaps? I'm wondering of its a ignition relay thats sticking or not opening thats making it not want to run. I've replaced what I think is the fuel pump relay (blue connector relay stuck with the other 4 relays) Is there any other relays that I should be checking and if there is where are they located at? All fuses are good, fuseable links are good.

 

So yeah chime in guys give me some ideas on what else could be keeping this thing from starting. one out of 100 starts it started and that was it. It has to be an electrical issue some where. Thanks in advance for the responses!

 

Hi,

The book shows 88 spfi has ecm# 22611 AA390 , 87 has , 22611 AA201 , and the ignition switch sounds suspect to me, that thing where nothing goes off while cranking. do check for a missing or loose screw that holds the rotor in place, i think hitochi dist have em and nippon do not. have you moved the timing up and back some to check for better results? did the car sit a long time , bad gas can be hard to get going. can you hear the fuel pump run when you turn the ign to ON. just for a couple seconds? is the spark output from coil breaking like pop, pop,pop when you crank the motor over, if not check that transister thing on the coil bracket. You do have the 4 wire disty ?

Hope this can help some.

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Will it push start? That might rule out a bad ignition switch that is killing the ignition or something while the starter motor is running. Not turning off the rest of the electronics in the start position shouldn't be a problem in of itself, but if it's not turning those off, but IS turning the ignition off... it won't start, and I've had that happen before (not on a subaru).

 

Is there any sort of anti-theft stuff on it? I had one that I had to rewire around virtually the entire ignition circuit because the aftermarket antitheft stuff had gone haywire and would not let a signal get to the starter motor.

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There is no Antitheft or auto start on this. I've replaced basically EVERYthing to do with the ignition.. Disty, Cap, rotor, coil, resistor deal for the coil, plugs, wires, ignition switch, ecu, throttle body, all the relays. I'm guessing that there is a internal wiring issue somewhere in the harness. I'm in the process of getting my boss to just part out the car. its not really worth fixing in a mechanics eyes but in an old mans eyes, every car he has is worth its weight in gold. thanks for the responses

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Ok, one last thing to try. with the key in the start position, check pins 13,14,15 on the ECU. those are the inputs for starting and charging ( according to my chiltons). If good, then problem is in ECU. It may have good spark but the ECU isn't providing it at the right time would be my best guess.

Ed

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