89 SC won't Start tried many things please help!

danpacheco53

Registered User
Hi Guys,

I have an 89 SC. I bought it cheap cause it would not start. Found harmonic balancer broken. Replaced it, replaced crank sensor, changed cam sensor, plugs, wires. Still no luck. I have spark, and fuel. The car shows the shift light when the key is on, turns off when you put to start position now. Before it was on all the time. The car acts like it wants to start once and a while. When it does it backfires loudly out the exhaust.

Thanks in advance

Dan
 
>replaced crank sensor, changed cam sensor, plugs, wires.

Confirm the plug wires are in the proper order...

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Make sure there is sufficient volts at the battery when cranking...+/-12.5 as an example. How long has the car not run? Fuel healthy?
 
Perhaps someone messed with it before you. Are you sure the cam sensor and it's housing are in the proper orientation? If not sure, you might try to start with the cam sensor disconnected.

If you've had some mis-fires a couple times, I'm going to suggest replacing the spark plugs as well. They may be fuel fouled from various attempts to start it. The backfire with black smoke tells me fuel has been injected, but perhaps at the wrong time. Check the oil as well to make sure it doesn't have a ton of fuel in it.

Before messing with the plugs, I'd make sure the battery is charged up and pull the connector off the cam sensor. Then push the gas pedal all the way to the floor and do a serious of crank for 20 seconds, off. Crank for 20 seconds, off. All with the pedal all the way to the floor. This may clear the chambers of any excess fuel. Do this 3 or 4 times. If it starts now, good. if not, try to start normally now and see if the behavior changes.
 
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new battery in the car, also put new fuel in it. The car didn't run for over 4 months. I have been playing with it for about a month now. A good friend of mine owns his own garage and worked for ford for over 20 years. He hasn't been able to figure it out either. I had wanted to try to fix it myself before paying lots of $$$$ for a mechanic to throw parts at it and charge me labor. The car has 138K on it. I bought it from the original owner. All paperwork from the window sticker and original sale agreement to all the oil changes. The car has had only ford parts in it. It is in great shape other than I can't drive it cause I can't start it! The car cranks over quickly with no problem.
 
I have bought many SC`s in non running condition. Yours sounds like one I was working on for a club member. It had the same symtoms and turned out to be a broken lower intercooler tube right where it mounts to the engine it was hit by a curb block or something. Anyway check all your intake tubes and intercooler. You really got to look hard to see this kind of dammage. Other than that I would run codes. Another thing to check is the DIS as they can go bad and not throw codes. Get a good used one to test it out. Keep looking and dont let anyone tell you all the fuel injectors need to be replaced as thats what most mechanics will tell you when they cant figure it out.
 
Also double check all your wire connections. I had a sudden quit (I was at WOT at the time so imagine how I felt :eek:) followed by a no start situation like your describing and it turned out the plug going into the coil pack's wiring harness wasn't all the way seated.

No codes and everything "looked" fine.

Fraser
 
Lay eyes on the ignition switch on the steering column, down on the right. Pull the plastic shroud between the steering wheel and dash. Make sure the switch hasn't come apart...fairly common issue.
 
Lay eyes on the ignition switch on the steering column, down on the right. Pull the plastic shroud between the steering wheel and dash. Make sure the switch hasn't come apart...fairly common issue.

Good suggestion. I would also put a test light to the injectors with some one cranking it and make sure you are getting injector fire. Sounds like you are since you have gotten a few backfires, but you need to be sure. One wire will be B+ and the other should flash while cranking...If you have fuel and spark, this is the next step to check....
Had one of a local club members cars that had a broken Throttle Position sensor that was indicating WOT all the time. Wide open throttle shuts the injectors off while cranking. So we had fuel pressure and spark, but no injector fire due to the false tp reading...just another idea.
 
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Perhaps someone messed with it before you. Are you sure the cam sensor and it's housing are in the proper orientation? If not sure, you might try to start with the cam sensor disconnected.
Yup.. Try that.

BTW, it will take multiple tries to get it to start. Turn the key off between start attempts. You should hit it within about 3 tries, but be prepared to try it up to 10 times before giving up.
 
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I have not checked the fuel pressure or the compression as of yet. I bought a new crank sensor from partsamerica that got rid of the shift light when cranking it. I changed the dis and cam sensor yesterday with parts from partsamerica. The only life I got was one hell of a backfire out the exhaust. I could smell fuel when it was cranking. This problem supposably started when the last owner decided to change out the cracked dash board. He used the original harness from the car, did not use the one on the replacement dashboard. I have since take it apart, double check every single connection, even cleaned them before putting em back together. No Luck so I started changing parts out of desperation. The car is beautiful, I hate to get rid of it but nothing seems to work. I have told to change the computer. I will double check the connections by the column again to be sure. What the heck it can't hurt.
 
You need to see if you have injector fire as I stated in my previous post on this thread. If you do, you likely have a cam synchronizer out of time (the part that the cam sensor hooks to) like Mike suggested. If you dont have injector fire, you have a wiring problem very likely. Check the injector fire. Very easy to do.....All you need it a test light.
 
Ok,

Checked compression. I have well over 90 across the board. Looks good. Injector pulse is there. It seems like the timing is off. All I get is massive backfires when i try to start it. I have not put all the belts back on yet, would that matter for it to start? Just a thought since I am pulling my hair out.

Thanks
Dan
 
Ok,

Checked compression. I have well over 90 across the board. Looks good. Injector pulse is there. It seems like the timing is off. All I get is massive backfires when i try to start it. I have not put all the belts back on yet, would that matter for it to start? Just a thought since I am pulling my hair out.

Thanks
Dan

Belts will not matter at all. If you are sure the plug wires are correct, you need to check the cam sensor sychronizer timing.
 
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