McLovin

i basically woke up one morning and my car wouldn't start. I pulled out my ECU that night and notived that my conversion harness plugs were broken. I purchased a new conversion harness and the car started up.... but it ran really really rough. Kind of sputtering out of the exhaust.

i changed the rotor,cap, spark plug wires and tried to start the car. Now the car cranks but does not start. My friend and i checked compression(180 across all four), fuel, timing, etc and everything is fine. We are stumped. Only thing i haven't tried yet is a new ECU. could that be the problem? and if not what else could be wrong? Thanks in advance guys. I need to get this bitch running

Tippyman

Timing, Compression, Fuel, Spark,

If it has all four, it WILL start.

Odds are you are not getting enough of one.

EF9SIRJeff

aye that have you listened to your fuel pump or checked to see if your injectors need cleened

checked to see if your spark isnt intermitant and that your getting it on all four cyl

checked your fuel pressure or see if fuel is coming thru the return line

any Cels ?

slammedz6ef

its your relay, i had the same problem

ef9_b20

^^^^ agree with relay. had the same problem before, but my relay made a click sound every now and then so thats how i knew.

McLovin

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EF9SIRJeff &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">aye that have you listened to your fuel pump or checked to see if your injectors need cleened

checked to see if your spark isnt intermitant and that your getting it on all four cyl

checked your fuel pressure or see if fuel is coming thru the return line

any Cels ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

fuel pump primes and i am getting spark in all four cylinders. There is also fuel coming through my lines

UPDATE!

tried out my buddies ECU and charged the battery. The car cranks really well now and wants to start but doesn't. Must be timing. can anyone confirm this?

zrickety

iTrader: (1)

sounds like it may have jumped time...check it with a timing light and inspect your timing belt

bemweezy

could be the ignition wiring or switch is messed up. Same thing happened to me, I got fuel, compression, timing, spark and car was cranking. I changed the ignition switch, car started up fine.

ef9_b20

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by zrickety &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">sounds like it may have jumped time...check it with a timing light and inspect your timing belt</TD></TR></TABLE>

agree. check the ig switch too.

zombieD

ok i know you changed your rotor,cap, and spark plug wires but is your distributor actually giving off spark? try removing one of your spark plugs and grounding it by the block and have a friend crank the motor! i dont think its timing because the distributors are ment to not be able to be set too far off. thats why they only go on one way...oh and check for corosion underneth the wrap on the positive and negative terminals of your battery and the wires too...thats about all i got...

McLovin

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by zombieD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok i know you changed your rotor,cap, and spark plug wires but is your distributor actually giving off spark? try removing one of your spark plugs and grounding it by the block and have a friend crank the motor! i dont think its timing because the distrib utors are ment to not be able to be set too far off. thats why they only go on one way...oh and check for corosion underneth the wrap on the positive and negative terminals of your battery and the wires too...thats about all i got...</TD></TR></TABLE>

i checked spark and am getting it in all four cylinders so i think that rules out any dizzy problem. i am having a buddy come over with a timing light tommorrow and we are gonna check my timing. thanks for everyones help. Ill keep this updated.

ef9_b20

any luck bud?

soulpwr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by McLovin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

i checked spark and am getting it in all four cylinders so i think that rules out any dizzy problem. i am having a buddy come over with a timing light tommorrow and we are gonna check my timing. thanks for everyones help. Ill keep this updated.</TD></TR></TABLE>
How do you intend to use a timing light on a car that wont start?

McLovin

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by soulpwr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
How do you intend to use a timing light on a car that wont start? </TD></TR></TABLE>

yea.... on me.

anyways i double checked and triple checked timing and everything is fine. I opened up my distributor and noticed there was a spring that was rollin around in the internals unsecured. Swapped out the dizzy with my buddies and the car still won't start.

it cranks really good for like 2-3 secs then hesitates and all of the lights go dim. and my battery light turns on. All this while i am jump starting my car. I had my battery tested and it is good, however it does not seem to hold a charge. anyone know What this is this a sign of?


Modified by McLovin at 9:40 PM 2/19/2008

StylishDOHC

If the alternators voltage regulator is messed up it can cause the injectors not to pulse....not sure why but it happened on my EF....you can get the same result by not hooking up the wire that runs from the alt. to the battery.

~sp33~

If its any consolation my car still started while being very out of time. I'd be rechecking any fuel and spark issues.

McLovin

update....

so here is everything i've tested on the car.

alternator-good
battery-good
starter-good
getting 180 compression all four cylinders
getting spark all four cylinders
check fuel filter and made sure fuel pump turns on-good
replaced the dizzy
replaced the ECU
replaced cap, rotor, spark plugs and wires.
checked timing

basically when i set the car to top dead center the rotor points to cylinder 3 instead of 1 on the distributor cap. My dad suggested that this could be the problem. The car basically cranks then stutters.... cranks then stutters. everytime the cranking stutters the lights dim. I am really running out of options.

sedrohatchstyle

idk if you tried already, but if you did the mpfi swap, the white wires on the 7-wrie dizzy plug might be backwards. but ten again if you've driven on it and didnt mess with those wires, i dont see why it wouldn't start, unless thats the problem...just try de-pinneing them nd if it doesn't work, then i dunno what it could be, dude

Redline130

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by McLovin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
basically when i set the car to top dead center the rotor points to cylinder 3 instead of 1 on the distributor cap. My dad suggested that this could be the problem. The car basically cranks then stutters.... cranks then stutters. everytime the cranking stutters the lights dim. I am really running out of options.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If that is the case, then that is why your car isn't starting. Your distributor is out of time. At TDC, the rotor should be pointing at the #1 cylinder position, which, if looking at the distributor from the passenger's side of the engine bay would be the bottom left socket on the distributor cap.

McLovin

i got the car running! However it is still running really choppy. It is very weak under accleration and kinda sounds like it's sputtering. I changed the fuel filter and nothing changed....

edit: also checked the compression and it is 180 on all four.

Redline130

Was it the rotor?

Well now that it is running, you can use the timing light to see how far off your timing might be. By chance, is there a check engine light?

zrickety

iTrader: (1)

sounds like maybe a short somewhere too...lights shouldn't dim so much if components are testing good. i would look for a broken, chaffed wire or something hooked up wrong

biggee

I know this may no be your main issue but that ground on your tstat housing may have a little bit of corrosion build up. Pull the 10mm out and clean the connector and the ground surface. That ground not being perfect can give you sooooo many problems.

schardbody

if the rotor is pointing to #3 when you got #1 at TDC your timing is MOST definately OFF.

check to see if #1 is at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke when you are doing this. sounds like its not. to tell turn the motor by hand until the intake valve/s on #1 cylinder closes, as soon as it closes you should be at TDC on #1 cylinder. if not your cam timing is off.

i had a VERY VERY similar problem with exactly the same symptoms as you and it turned out to be a distributor bearing seizing.

the seizing bearing put too much strain on the timing belt and caused it to jump teeth which threw the timing out. also made it harder for the starter to rotate the engine which caused the battery to drain during cranking sessions.

pull the distributor off the head and see if you can rotate the shaft by hand fairly easily.

hope that helps.

schardbody

any update??