Crank, no start

PaulnGa

Registered User
I have an 89SC in the driveway with a crank no start condition. It turns over fine. It will rarely spit and run at very low rpm for a few seconds. It dies with any throttle increase. It reeks of fuel and puts a black cloud out the pipe while running. Other times it acts as if the timing is off and the crank almost stops.
After a lot of reading here I have checked the following :

1 The fuel pressure is 39 psi at key on. While cranking it drops to 37. Key off it holds 39 for at least 15 minutes.
2. The upshift light comes on at key on and goes out during cranking.
3. The cam sensor seems good as unplugging it makes no difference in the no start cindition.
4. The coil primary is 8-9 on two and 13 on the other. Is this enough to cause a problem? The secondary is 13.5k on all three. In addition one of the plug wires was not on and the wire is burned through at the plug boot.

I do not have a digital logic probe to do the tests on the dis module. Is there another way? I do not have access to another SC so can't borrow parts to test. I plan to replace the coil pack and wires first.

Any ideas or things to try before I start tossing parts at it?

Thanks
Paul
 
I'd start with plugs and wires and go from there. Has the car been sitting for a while? How long have you had it? It sounds like it's getting too much fuel or at least not able to burn the fuel it is getting.
 
Puzzled

Supposedly it has less than 300 miles since it was "tuned". The young lady who owns it called me and stated she was driving, it lost power and would only run at a low idle and died when she trys to accelerate. They towed it to me and I am trying to fix it for her without "diagnosis by parts swapping" ie at low cost to her.

It also has both brake lights on and a rock hard pedal most of the time. After running for a while according to her the pedal will feel normal. Not working on that yet.

Paul
 
PaulnGa said:
Supposedly it has less than 300 miles since it was "tuned". The young lady who owns it called me and stated she was driving, it lost power and would only run at a low idle and died when she trys to accelerate. They towed it to me and I am trying to fix it for her without "diagnosis by parts swapping" ie at low cost to her.

It also has both brake lights on and a rock hard pedal most of the time. After running for a while according to her the pedal will feel normal. Not working on that yet.

Paul

Hmmm, that brake problem could be anything from an accumulator to the ABS pump. What was the fuel pressure when accelerating? It should have gone up to around 50 lbs. when holding the throttle open or pound for pound as the boost rises. Where are you located at?
 
PaulnGa said:
Anyone have any idea?

If the upshift light is on when cranking, check the crankshaft pos sensor behind harmonic balancer. This is a common problem with these cars when the balancer starts to come apart. Also the DIS module is another common part to fail on the SC's, which could also cause the symptoms your describing.

As far as brake pedal being hard, the acculmator is bad. You can get one from Prior Re-man. Check the ABS relay and make sure the pump is coming on and off.
 
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