Did a cam/ heads install; turns over but won't start

It was the back side of the traces. The top side was fine, so I'm not sure if it matters. I tested all the solder points to all the other solder points, and they tested fine with my continuity/ voltage tester. The only thing that it could be, would be a relay.

I honestly don't know what to do. I have no faith that any "next fix" will be the one. After the heads and cam, I was already pretty much at the limit of where I wanted to be on my credit card, and the car is giving me no choice. It's like it said, "let me die already". Whatever this problem is, it's entirely incidental......freak coincidence. It's been in three accidents, and the adjuster said after last year's accident (not my fault) that she was surprised that it was put back on the road after the second one. The previous owner had Frankensteined it together from two cars, and when I bought it off him, he had two really messed up/ rotted out SC's, and an XR7 that was totally shot. He listed those ones on Kijiji and said that if they had no takers, they were going to the scrap yard. And I'm fully aware that my SC won't survive another accident before it's written off. Everywhere I park, everywhere I drive, I'm half way paranoid that someone won't be watching what they're doing, and that it's the end of the line for this car anyways.

I'm torn. I know that I'll miss the car, but they just have no value to anyone that isn't a hardcore fanatic of the cars. Every additional dollar that I put into this, I know I may as well just light it on fire. Similar concept. Even if the car gets up and running, the values of these cars are just in the toilet, and at some point, you just kind of have to consider some sort of value for money spent. Just to play devil's advocate, I listed it for sale locally for a price that I thought reflected the car in its condition (with a no start condition as well), and had only got one response. I'm saddened by that.....but not surprised. It confirmed what I didn't really want to find out.
 
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I've installed the starter, made sure everything is connected well. Still no start! :mad:

I took the IRCM off the car and drilled out the mounting holes. There's a ton of traces that are lifting away from the circuit board. I'm not sure if it's a relay as much as the traces are just flat out lifting off of the circuit board at dozens of locations. This thing is bound to fail soon (if it isn't already.....and if it's the cause of the no start). In all of my years of dealing with electronics, I've never seen anything this bad.

I too would like to see a picture of the IRCM if possible. The blow article is for a Thunderbird Turbo Coupe but visually this is would be my internal visual baseline for the IRCM.



http://www.turbotbird.com/techinfo/New_IRCM/IRCM.html
 
I know this is a long thread, but it if you already mentioned that, I may have missed it before?

I don't know if it was mentioned or not, but yeah, it was Frankensteined with a rebuilt status. You have to look closer to find those things but for example, the fenders are stamped 1989 and my car is a '91. It's a high mileage (275,000 km) car, with three accidents and 13 grand worth of damage on its CarProof record. It looks like there was mild hail damage on the roof of the car before I had bought it. The driver's power window is struggling and will need to be replaced. The driver's side strut tower is developing a fair bit of rust between it and the body. These are all things that I'm factoring into my difficult decision, too. I thought it would be cool to put a badass setup on this motor, as a bit of a new lease on life, but 'ya know.....ECU, starter, DIS, ignition switch, coil pack (had two spares), cam position sensor (I already had a spare), new crank sensor (and various adjustments of it) and having checked various connections and grounds dozens of times and even having taken everything back off to double check that I lined up the timing marks on the timing gears................whaddy'a do? The whole system registers a massive voltage drop under load. I'm boosting it with a battery pack that has enough cranking amps to get a car started in the dead of winter. The battery cables get hot. It's getting enough power at the source to power everything.

There are several things that are sort of improvised that I've came across.......the soldered spade connector at the starter was one, yet the car was running fine before. The starter bolts were almost stripped though.......I had to use a 12mm instead of a 13 mm on one, because it was about 50 percent stripped. But still, in the back of my mind, I wonder what may have not been Frankensteined well enough in the wiring (or elsewhere) that may lead to problems, and if there was anything on the edge of its lifespan that may have been pushed over the edge. For example, the stereo was a hack job.....someone had taken out the factory stereo at some point (and ran some aftermarket thicker wiring to the trunk), the amp was gone, and someone had spliced in two yellow wires with a black stripe in the dash wiring, which led to confusion, because there was only supposed to be one. The factory speakers were replaced by some good Pioneers, but I had to do some surgery to the stereo system, as it was non-functional.

For the accident, you can probably find the thread in the non-technical forum where someone hit and ran the T-Bird last year when I was in the grocery store, left a fake information note on the windshield, and I had a witness that had got a photo of the vehicle and licence plate. Imagine their surprise by getting contacted by the insurance company! I won that case as they admitted fault.
 
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Last ditch effort to save this car: would problems with the Moates Quarterhorse cause a no-start condition? Bad battery? My laptop recognizes the software. The contacts were cleaned off on the ECU, and the laptop can datalog, meaning that it's established a connection with the QH. Has anyone seen an out and out no-start where the QH was the culprit and/ or had defective QH software?
 
Last ditch effort to save this car: would problems with the Moates Quarterhorse cause a no-start condition? Bad battery? My laptop recognizes the software. The contacts were cleaned off on the ECU, and the laptop can datalog, meaning that it's established a connection with the QH. Has anyone seen an out and out no-start where the QH was the culprit and/ or had defective QH software?

Good afternoon


I have not installed an Moates Quarterhorse but what I understand in tuning articles, yes. Engine crank but no start.

http://www.efidynotuning.com/


You have probably seen this information on the Moates site and or instructions you have with your unit.

http://support.moates.net/quarterhorse-battery-and-resistor-check/

I would contact Moates Quarterhorse or one of the forums tuner members to answer this question i.e. decipha, Dave XR7.


Good Luck.
 
Good afternoon


I have not installed an Moates Quarterhorse but what I understand in tuning articles, yes. Engine crank but no start.

http://www.efidynotuning.com/


You have probably seen this information on the Moates site and or instructions you have with your unit.

http://support.moates.net/quarterhorse-battery-and-resistor-check/

I would contact Moates Quarterhorse or one of the forums tuner members to answer this question i.e. decipha, Dave XR7.


Good Luck.

I removed the QH......still no start. At this point, I'm positive that the problem lies DEEP in the wiring harness, under the dash, or some very minor thing that has become a major problem. It's almost like some sort of wiring cancer, where whatever problem it is has coupled up with or multiplied with something else.

That's officially it for this car, I've started removing the parts of interest and the performance parts, and the engine bay is a mess. There's no going back now. I just have to finish taking them off, and figure out what price I'm going to charge, and then go from there. There will be a thread in the parts for sale section with a lot of great stuff.

Thanks again, guys, for trying to help me with this. There's been lots of great information and tips in here. I feel like in some way I've let you guys down, too, because your time was in vain, as well. Even help from a fairly mechanically inclined neighbour of mine didn't help......they couldn't find anything, either, and were looking in the areas around the EEC test wiring area, and grounds and stuff.
 
Update: engine is stripped back down down right to and including the camshaft. I work fast.
 
Sorry to hear that. Just fyi, all of our fenders are stamped 1989. That's not when the fender was produced, but the first year of production for that part. You will notice lots of things stamped or embossed with either E9, 89, or 1989 on your car.
 
Sorry to hear that. Just fyi, all of our fenders are stamped 1989. That's not when the fender was produced, but the first year of production for that part. You will notice lots of things stamped or embossed with either E9, 89, or 1989 on your car.

Ah, okay! The engine looks like it is an '89 (that's what the sticker said on it), but it's good to know that it's not necessarily from an '89. 'Ya learn something every day. :D
 
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