Car still won't start! Options

[silverteener]

OK,

I've been helping a fellow member that bought a 73 1.7 w/ original fuel injection and we cannot get it to run. The former owner said it had a fuel issue and parked it for 2 years.

so far we've replaced all the fuel lines, had the tank dipped and sealed and replaced the sock, put in a new fuel pump, and put on a new fuel filter. We have fuel at the injectors, they do spray and the fuel pressure is 28.

There is no spark coming from the spark plugs. we pulled a plug and turned the engine over and it didn't spark. We should see spark here right?? so we moved up to the coil. We have 12v at the black wire and we put on a new condensor. I also just checked the points and they do spark when I open them. I did this by pulling all the wires off the coil and I hooked a wire from the negative side of the coil to the condensor wire and another wire from the positive side to the battery. I also checked the gap on the points and it is ok. It also has a new rotor and cap. We also put my coil on and tried it and still no spark. it doesn't even hint at turning over.


There is something weird about this car and it was like that before but the negative for the battery is mounted to where the coil mounts. and there is another ground from the case up to the coil. The bolt is broken on the body where the negative side of the battery should connect so they mounted it on the coil instead.

Any suggestions on what to do next. I'm running out of ideas!

thanks

Scott

[ericread]

Since you mentioned "spark" and "grounding" issues, to what did you ground the spark plug when you got no spark? I am assuming the engine case? You might want to try another ground for the spark plug test. I only say that to possibly rule out the entire spark energizing system. At this rate your have un-tested dist cap, rotor and spark plug wires.

What is the manufacturer and model of your dist cap and rotor? I have been told that there are a few manufacturers that make what appear to be 914 caps and rotors, but do not work well with our cars.

I look forward to more information.

Eric Read

[silverteener]

truthfully we just took the spark plug out and turned over the motor to see if it would spark. I didn't know I would need to put it close to metal. I can try that. I'm not sure of the mfg. I know the cap is orange and I have 2 rotors we used, one was grey and one is orange.

[silverteener]

Well I just had my dad come over and we confirmed there is no spark at the spark plugs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[Jeffs9146]

Spark Plug wires!!??

Bad ground??

[Tom]

Try this, Pull the coil high voltage wire from the dizzy and place it near a ground source, ( some metal piece that is grounded). Then remove the negative wire from the coil ( should go to the dizzy inside), now with 12 volts to the positive side side of the coil, use a short piece of wire to short the negative side of the coil to ground for a very short time. Like you are replicating the points, alternating a short and then opening. This should give you a spark from the high voltage coil wire to ground. If not, then the coil is defective. If there is a spark, then put the high voltage wire back to the dizzy and short negative side of the coil to ground again ( ensure that the rotor is in contact with one of the cap's plug wires). If you have spark now from the plugs to ground, you know the coil, rotor, and dizzy cap are good.
In the interest of safety, make sure you don't have any gas leaks in the engine bay or the sparks could cause a fire!
Tom

[silverteener]

I will try that tonight. I put my coil on his car before and it still wouldn't start. I think tonight I'm going to try putting my cap and spark plug wires on his car and see if it works. I know the condensor is good and the points do have spark. just can figure out why there no is spark at the plugs? thanks for the tip!

[silverteener]

I put my cap and plug wires on and no change. that is about as far as I got tonight. I took note of the wires on the coil. on the + side we have a purple/black wire and red/green wire. on the - side we have a red/black wire and the green wire going to the condensor. does this sound right?

[Lennies914]

Black/red (larger wire) goes on +
Black/purple & green condensor wire goes on -

[underthetire]

No it does not sound right. My 73 had only 1 wire on the + (+12v) side, and 2 on the negative, condenser and tach signal.

I don't think mine had a red green, but I can't go look right now.

[silver74insocal]

have you metered the tranny ground strap? if its bad, you have an open circuit. grounding to the engine wont work because of the rubber mounts. Dave

[silverteener]

I will double check the trans ground strap tonight. I never tested it. It also sounds like we have the wires mixed up on the coil too!

[SLITS]

Green w/ Red is the oil idiot light sender lead. Not to be connected to the coil.