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88 GL SPFI No Spark? BURN THIS THING.


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yes, I am lost on what I need to be checking on my car for confirmation.. it almost seems like posts were deleted, because I try to review and the the best of my reading comprehension i come out of left field saying I will try to get to it tomorrow, when I never read anywhere that I initially offered or was asked to check anything..

 

I'm confused now, somehow..

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The DCv tests are to be done on the harness side. Testing for the AC pulse would be a test of the disty wires. however this is not a hall effect distributor so I don't think yuo would see any AC voltage. Cougar, Why test on the AC scale? The FSMs proceedure says nothing about testing the disty on the AC scale.

 

The reason I wanted to do this test is to try and verify that there is a valid signal on the line. Since we don't have a O-scope to really see what is going on the next best thing is a meter set to measure AC. The pulse rate is slow enough that most meters shouldn't have any trouble measuring the pulse repetition rate of the signal. We now have two members that are having trouble in this area. One is seeing around 4.3 v AC and the other is seeing less than .2 v AC. Both have CAS errors. I'm not sure what to think about that unless there is something else going on with the ECU or, your thinking about mixing the SPFI and MPFI distys is a problem. You may be right on that. If we can at least verify that there should be some AC signal on the CAS output line on a working engine it would at least help determine there is a signal getting to the ECU.

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Okay I'm trying to test the disties for Volts AC without it plugged in right? I'm getting no reading for any ac volts coming out of the disties.

 

That's what I was saying, there is no hall effect in these. They need power to the LED inside to make any kind of pulse. I really think testing for any AC voltage is a goose chase.

 

Just out of curiousity, is your're fuel supply (from filter)line going to the front most tube on the throttle body? And the curved one coming out of the regulator to the return? Just a though cause after days of "WTF" we discovered that was the problem with Subaru-dudes car in the "another EA82 no start" thread

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That's what I was saying, there is no hall effect in these. They need power to the LED inside to make any kind of pulse. I really think testing for any AC voltage is a goose chase.

 

Just out of curiousity, is your're fuel supply (from filter)line going to the front most tube on the throttle body? And the curved one coming out of the regulator to the return? Just a though cause after days of "WTF" we discovered that was the problem with Subaru-dudes car in the "another EA82 no start" thread

 

It's a no spark thread.. not a no start.. gas delivery is fine. Would how the fuel lines are hooked up affect whether or not I'm getting spark??

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Okay which one of these is the yellow/white? Can I get voltages for these wires?

 

Originally Posted by MorganM

black/white from ECU to ignitor - correct

yellow from ECU to ignitor - should be yellow/white

 

black/white from ECU to + on coil - is actually coming from a ground point through some little resistor or w/e

yellow from ECU to - on coil - correct

 

black/white from ingitor to + on coil - correct

blue from ignitor to - on coil - correct

 

So you should have two black/white wires on + at coil - correct

Yellow and blue on - at coil - correct

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It's a no spark thread.. not a no start.. gas delivery is fine. Would how the fuel lines are hooked up affect whether or not I'm getting spark??

 

This started as a no start after conversion thread, so I thought perhaps you may have hooked up the lines wrong, or not added the SPFI fuel pump. I am just trying to step back and review all possibilities

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You must be thinking of a different thread. No swap here. I bought this 87 and it never would spark. I'm back to "how I got it" where i can get spark to come through the coil.. but it is more like a "short" spark than an ignition spark. meaning.. if I feather the b/w wire at the ignitor then the coil-disty wire "shorts" out on a ground. But it wont spark by cranking the motor... I'm sure everything is hooked up correctly now.

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2 of the 3 ecu i've been using will just flash 5 shorts.. i think they are for something else.. one of them should be the loyale ecu. the 1 (original) ecu that has been flashing codes at me is no longer flashing anything. I'm getting voltage where it should be, as far as i can tell. I am not getting any igntion signal I guess. NO SPARK. $100 to the person that tells me what will make this car run again. His wife was driving it and it just died. No more spark. Did not over heat. Everything else seems to work good. I'll give you my phone number via PM if you think talking to me over the phone will help. I'm in Tucson, AZ. If this isn't fixed soon I am going to try and sell it as is to get my 200 bones back.

 

Edit: What about internal problems? Would no compression or anything like that be a cause for a no spark?

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I HAVE SPARK!!!!!!!!!!! sort of.

 

Okay I was doing some more testing.. and apparently I'm not getting proper voltage at the disty. I thought I had been.. but who knows. I took my plug apart so i could try plugging it differently.. and decided i dont care about this pos anymore.. and i hooked the positive lead from a jumper cable of a running vehicle on to the 12v plug of the disty. spark spark spark spark spark just fine ... can I get away with just hard wiring (with a fuse) a 12v line right into the disty? That's the black/green wire in case you're wondering. I guess it could be the ecu because it's not getting proper voltage out of the ecu or something. I hereby revoke my offer of $100 :Flame:

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I HAVE SPARK!!!!!!!!!!! sort of.

 

Okay I was doing some more testing.. and apparently I'm not getting proper voltage at the disty. I thought I had been.. but who knows. I took my plug apart so i could try plugging it differently.. and decided i dont care about this pos anymore.. and i hooked the positive lead from a jumper cable of a running vehicle on to the 12v plug of the disty. spark spark spark spark spark just fine ... can I get away with just hard wiring (with a fuse) a 12v line right into the disty? That's the black/green wire in case you're wondering. I guess it could be the ecu because it's not getting proper voltage out of the ecu or something. I hereby revoke my offer of $100 :Flame:

 

Check for voltage out of the ECU at the corresponding pin. If the voltage is there but not at the Disty replace that wire. You could also disconnect both the disty plug and the ECU and measure the resistance of the wire end to end. That will take long leads but try it, and see if there is any resistance. Should be very near zero. Measure on a low scale to make sure you get into the .000's of ohms. Anything over .005 ohms is higher than the wire should be.

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The ECU should work ok even if it isn't bolted down.

 

Going from what you now say it looks like you are not getting 12 volts from the ECU to the blk/grn wire. Is that correct? Since you tied 12 volts to the wire and it worked then it appears the ECU is bad or there is a problem with the power suppling the 12 volts to the ECU. Check all the fuses and be sure the horn works which is supplied power through fuse #5. There are several pins on the ECU that provide 12 volts to it. If you need the pin numbers I will try to get those for you.

 

In regards to my request to measure the CAS AC voltage what I was requesting is taking a voltage reading with everthing connected normally and while cranking the engine. The CAS sensor in the disty is a photo diode system and must have power provided to it in order for it to work. I think a normal working output should have between 4 to 5 volts of AC voltage on it. The pulses generated in the disty are then looked at by the ECU to determine the proper firing of the ignition as most of you know already. I was hoping that by measuring a good system it would be of help in the future as a good reference, to confirm that a good signal is getting to the ECU.

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Continuity is perfect. If the disty was wired wrong would that mess up ecus?

Does the ecu need to be bolted down so it's grounded ?

 

 

Check to see if Pin 19 of ECU is outputting 12v. The ECU shuold not need to be bolted down, as it is grounded through wires to several of it's pins. Those pins are grounded at the Intake. Are both of the wires to ground on the intake bolted on?

 

wires going to the following pins should all have ground.

 

30 Br

35 B

42 Br

44 Br

50 By

51 By

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The back of the plugs should be marked with the numbers I believe.

 

I think the pins providing the power to the ECU are more important to look at than the grounding pins for the problem you are having now.

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Well.. i found a good ecu and all the voltage was good and it actually sparks now.. So I guess the disty was wired wrong after all.. or something.. I will post tomarrow when I get the fuel pump and a few other things plugged back in and take this baby around the block.

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:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

it HAD to be something simple like that; that "hard" stuff had been checked seventeen ways to sunday. At least your problem wasnt bad spark plugs :rolleyes:

 

I hope I am not clapping too soon; let us know if she fires up tomorrow/today!!

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:burnout::burnout::burnout::burnout:

Well... It fired up. Just gotta time her out.. any suggestion? 18? 22? it's BTDC right? Get a new fuel pump.. clean gasoline.. oil change.. tune up.. and it's ready for market.. too bad it's fwd... maybe i should convert it!

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:burnout::burnout::burnout::burnout:

Well... It fired up. Just gotta time her out.. any suggestion? 18? 22? it's BTDC right? Get a new fuel pump.. clean gasoline.. oil change.. tune up.. and it's ready for market.. too bad it's fwd... maybe i should convert it!

 

FSM Recommends 20 degrees. I dont know enough to make any calls outside of that, but I'm sure someone else will chime in with more info on what that can effect.

 

Since the car is a front wheeler, emphasize the economy aspect that this driveline offers.. It is a five speed, correct? if so, then that is the most fuel efficient driveline made for the cars simply due to the weight of the rotating mass.

 

Great to hear its running again!

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