Long story short, the '89 just had a ton of work done on it and was running great. Heading home from hunting, I got pulled over for having no running lights. Reverse and dash/shifter lights were gone as well. Drove it during daylight the next day and it wouldn't start again while in my driveway. Replaced a couple of blown fuses which fixed dash and running lights, not reverse lights, and have been trying to figure out the crank/no start ever since.

New alternator, battery, cables, starter relay, grounds, all connectors & relays cleaned & inspected... have really followed Cruiser's commandments in this regard.

Tested the CPS and I'm in the 350ish range unplugged and am getting a 3 on AC while cranking which seems low.

I cleaned and inspected the ignition coil too which is sending voltage to the distributer, confirmed. Tested one of the cylinder coils, and it is not giving any spark.

Any real time advice on next step is greatly appreciated.

 

Unplug the CPS and plug it back in and see what happens.

 

No luck cruiser. I bought a new CPS yesterday. Do you think it's worth replacing it? The existing one looks to have been replaced at some point for what it's worth.

 

You'd think that it being at 350 mv, it would fire.

Have you confirmed you have no spark at the plugs?

What "cylinder coil" did you test?

Maybe pop off the distributor cap and have a peek inside there.

 

Agreed, I'll do some better testing and pop the cap. I tested #5. Thanks cruiser, I appreciate it.

 

HE has Spoken...

 

I used an inline tester tonight and re-confirmed that the ignition unit to distributer is getting juice. How much, I don’t know yet? As can be expected w/ tards like me and an even tardier cousin, the interior dome light was left on and drained my battery. I swapped it out w/ a basically brand new batt that had been fully charged a half of year ago but it’s definitely lost some V over time sitting. It seems to drop to about 11.6 ish before it stabilizes but continues to drop on the tester ever so slowly. This is too low to offer any reliable data I’m assuming but am trickling a fresh battery.

I tested the ignition to distributer wire w/ this weak battery and inline light bulb tester and it displayed a faint orange/red but visible glow.
I then used a fully charged power pack to the battery and tested # 1 spark plug while being jumped and it gave the same faint but visible orange/red glow.

I’ll plan to take some pics of distributor and what not tonight as I continue. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

And Cruiser, as you intelligently/kindly questioned... there IS some sort of a spark.

 

I would be leaning toward coil/ICM then.

 

The ignition coil and module are both original Renix and French Bendix, respectively. The wire from the coil to distributor was pretty corroded on the distributor end along with plug end. I’ve cleaned these. The distributer cap and rotor look to have been replaced recently. You can see there’s some corrosion going on in there.

I did purchase a new coil today at Napa. I tested the old coil and the new coil (while removed) very un-scientifically, basically turning the dial for readings. I don’t know how to interpret them?

New:
Pos to Neg: .6
Neg to Pos “Prong?”: 7.16

Old:
Pos to Neg: .6
Neg to Pos “Prong?”: 6.08

Right now, my short term plan of attack is to:

1. Take advice!
2. Re-check / clean misc. connections and look for bad wiring tonight.
3. Replace coil tonight and see what happens, re-clean module.
4. Replace ignition module.
5. Replace coil to distributor wire.
6. Replace plugs.

 

Nothing with 1,2, and 3 tonight. Sounded so close...

 

Pulled the NSS tonight. Failed to mention I had a no reverse light issues as well.





Hopefully, get it back in tomorrow. Still dead right now.

 

The NSS removal and clean took care of the reverse lights issue but that was all. Those three zip ties were a blast...

I'm going to swap the CPS next since I've replaced the ignition coil and ignition wire. Just eliminating variables at this point...

One other variable could be that the mechanic was working inside the steering to fix the high beams?

 

Got her going tonight! Following this, I DID replace the CPS, the fuel filter, and fuel pump (also re-checked/cleaned misc. connections) but didn't try starting until all three parts were in and there she went. Could have been either of the three (or connections). I'll followup w/ this as soon as I can, but I have completed most of Cruisers tips already, so many variables already eliminated. What a great feeling to get her going again.

 

Nice job!! And thanks for the update.