These are all the checks I've done so far
- continuity to wiring from ecu to distributor
- distributor receiving 12v (koeo)
- checked resistance for primary and secondary winding in distributor and also tried a known working one
- continuity from c101 to c419(distributor to fuseboard)
- fuses are ok and checked for resistance to be sure
- main relay is fine (two clicks, pump priming)
-new adaptor harness obd2b to obd1 p28(works fine)

I managed to get it to start by having ecu laid flat at a specific point so I'm sure there's a wiring fault from the bulk head to the ecu plugs. It must be a fairly bad break in the wire as it cut out as soon as I gently touched the loom to identity the faulty wire and have since not been able to start it.

My question is, what wiring in the engine loom,other than the distributor wiring, is absolutely critical for the running for the engine? When the engine cut out it was immediate like a sudden loss of spark.

many thanks

 

What car?

 

2000 ej9 obd2b with obd1 conversion harness and p28. Ecu and conversion harness are ok

 

Did you test the Yel/Grn wire in the distributor?

Does the distributor rotor spin when you crank the engine?

 

yes and yes. It appears after another couple of hours testing today that whilst the wiring from dizzy to ecu plug has continuity and the conversion harness is new - the male connectors in the conversion harness for the tdc wire, crank and tps wires were not making proper contact with the female connectors on ecu connector C. If I pulled on the crank sensor wire during continuity testing with the ecu plugged into the conversion harness, it would make a very poor connection and resistance was no way near the 0.03 that the rest of the wiring has. Hopefully it can be repaired

 

 

As above it's faulty ecu plug pins

 

^Should throw distributor CEL codes after cranking for 30 seconds, if correct.

 

i got four in total- codes 4 and 8 and codes 7 and 10. Crank, tdc, tps and iat. Have my work cut out trying to improve contact with these

 

 

I think that's what i will try first mate. It's a risk as if I close up the pins too much it could bend the male pins on the adaptor harness. I will try it first and if that fails i will Have to use pigtails from my spare loom

 

Reset the ECU to see if all codes return.

 

Needs a person with lots of patience and skilled enough to work with little things like pins on connectors
Good luck with that

 

Don't talk to me about patience... worst case scenario is i remove pins and 50mm of wire from a spare plug and solder it to my loom

 

I will do this after repairing the wires. At the moment I have to pull on them to maintain enough contact in the pins to keep the car running - let go and it cuts out.

 

Hopefully this helps someone else in the future. I've read everything there is to rea related to no spark and none of the literature covered the issues I had. I wish it was as easy as a faulty distributor/sensors, blown fuses, weak battery, blown plugs, degraded leads etc etc. It took a long time to find out what the problems were