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PanamaExpat
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 28, 2011
- Messages
- 1,076
- Vehicle Year
- 1994
- Transmission
- Manual
Well after almost two years IT'S ALIVE....
I put gas in the tank and swiped the battery from my wife's car today and of course met with horrible failure...
Put the key in and pushed the clutch down turned the key and was greeted with a CLICK... Checked connections and all seemed OK so I quickly dropped the starter only to find that when I went over it I didn't tighten the two bolts that hold the brush mounts to the backing plate so they had no ground. Tested it on the bench and put it back in. Engine cranked over great but no start.
Fuel pump came on but no fuel at the rail. Cycled it a few times bleeding off the air and soon had fuel at the rail. Noticed the fuel gauge was on full... Hard to do on 2.5 gallons of gas so I figured I had a problem with the sender. Pulled the pump out of the tank and played with the float a few times and put it back in and the gauge dropped back to where it should be. Engine cranked over still no start.
Yanked a plug wire and stuck a screwdriver in it. Laid it across the top of the motor and cranked the engine...No spark. Went to the computer and of course brought up TRS and searched 4.0 no spark. ADSM to the rescue. Grabbed the trusty FLUKE and as my luck goes the battery was dead. Dug up a nine volt adapter and modded my meter to run on AC. Checked and had 12 volts on the red and green wire on the coil pack with the key on. Did not have fluctuating ground on the other three wires though when the engine was cranking. Looked real qick at the connector on the crank sensor and all was good there. Pulled up the EBSCO site and looked on the wiring diagram and discovered that the coil pack is fed by the ignition control module. Google for a quick pic of the ICM... So that was what that funny module was on the left side of the core support. Wonder if I forgot to reconnect it when I put the wiring harness back in. Went out to the garage and looked... Sure enough there was the plug NOT connected to the module. Plugged it in, Plugged the coil pack back in, reconnected my disconnected plug wire and hit the key.
Cranked right up. Was a bit rough and it died shortly after but it ran. Cranked it again and kept my foot on the accelerator a bit to keep it from dying. It smoothed out after a few seconds and started idling about 1200 rpm. It warmed up a couple minutes and dropped off high idle then died. Third time started up and it settled in about 800 rpm and seems to be running fine.
Then I stuck the driver seat back in and put on the gear shift. Backed it out of the garage and headed out the gate and up the street. Just then I remembered I only had two lug nuts on each front wheel and they were only finger tight. Turned around and headed back to the garage before doing any damage to my wheels.
Did a victory dance all the way into the house and straight to the humidor where I have been keeping a Cohiba Maduro 5 just for this occasion. Grabbed it and a cold beer and headed out to the garage to continue my celebration. Put on the rest of the lug nuts, washed the windshield enough that I could see and drove back out the gate and around the neighborhood for a few minutes. Found a few bolts that I had missed tightening up but beyond that she drives like new.
SO ... Am I happy? You F'n bet! Now over the next few days I'll get the lights and grill back on it and put the interior back together. But now... TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!!!
I put gas in the tank and swiped the battery from my wife's car today and of course met with horrible failure...
Put the key in and pushed the clutch down turned the key and was greeted with a CLICK... Checked connections and all seemed OK so I quickly dropped the starter only to find that when I went over it I didn't tighten the two bolts that hold the brush mounts to the backing plate so they had no ground. Tested it on the bench and put it back in. Engine cranked over great but no start.
Fuel pump came on but no fuel at the rail. Cycled it a few times bleeding off the air and soon had fuel at the rail. Noticed the fuel gauge was on full... Hard to do on 2.5 gallons of gas so I figured I had a problem with the sender. Pulled the pump out of the tank and played with the float a few times and put it back in and the gauge dropped back to where it should be. Engine cranked over still no start.
Yanked a plug wire and stuck a screwdriver in it. Laid it across the top of the motor and cranked the engine...No spark. Went to the computer and of course brought up TRS and searched 4.0 no spark. ADSM to the rescue. Grabbed the trusty FLUKE and as my luck goes the battery was dead. Dug up a nine volt adapter and modded my meter to run on AC. Checked and had 12 volts on the red and green wire on the coil pack with the key on. Did not have fluctuating ground on the other three wires though when the engine was cranking. Looked real qick at the connector on the crank sensor and all was good there. Pulled up the EBSCO site and looked on the wiring diagram and discovered that the coil pack is fed by the ignition control module. Google for a quick pic of the ICM... So that was what that funny module was on the left side of the core support. Wonder if I forgot to reconnect it when I put the wiring harness back in. Went out to the garage and looked... Sure enough there was the plug NOT connected to the module. Plugged it in, Plugged the coil pack back in, reconnected my disconnected plug wire and hit the key.
Cranked right up. Was a bit rough and it died shortly after but it ran. Cranked it again and kept my foot on the accelerator a bit to keep it from dying. It smoothed out after a few seconds and started idling about 1200 rpm. It warmed up a couple minutes and dropped off high idle then died. Third time started up and it settled in about 800 rpm and seems to be running fine.
Then I stuck the driver seat back in and put on the gear shift. Backed it out of the garage and headed out the gate and up the street. Just then I remembered I only had two lug nuts on each front wheel and they were only finger tight. Turned around and headed back to the garage before doing any damage to my wheels.
Did a victory dance all the way into the house and straight to the humidor where I have been keeping a Cohiba Maduro 5 just for this occasion. Grabbed it and a cold beer and headed out to the garage to continue my celebration. Put on the rest of the lug nuts, washed the windshield enough that I could see and drove back out the gate and around the neighborhood for a few minutes. Found a few bolts that I had missed tightening up but beyond that she drives like new.
SO ... Am I happy? You F'n bet! Now over the next few days I'll get the lights and grill back on it and put the interior back together. But now... TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!!!
Last edited:
I thought I was reading one of my old posts for a minute......
:thumbup:
