Date:         Thu, 13 Apr 2000 21:20:48 -0400
Reply-To:     Marc Theune <mtheune@EMORY.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Theune <mtheune@EMORY.EDU>
Subject:      85 GL No Spark-No Start
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Help please, all of you great experts, I'm at the end of my rope.

My 85 GL is sitting in my carport and will not start.  It cranks fine
but just will not start.  I had the warm start problem off and on for
the last year, but I thought I had fixed it until it came back recently,
when it once again would not restart after shutoff on a short run or
world die outright while driving.  Always I had to wait for it to cool
down, and it always restarted with a cloud of black smoke.  Not this
time.  It died last Friday and came home on a flatbed.  Nothing I can do
will revive it.

I've been all over these great archives and tried many things.  At first
I thought it was a fuel problem, but I soon realized that there's no
spark from the coil as far as I can tell.  I bought my first multimeter
and tried some of the tests you guys have posted.  Here's what I've
found.

First, the fuel pump comes on when the key is in on position and whirrs
away during cranking.  Fuel is definitely getting to the fuel rail as
verfied through the pressure test connector (a real surprise gusher
there).  The coil resistance is within range in both primary and
secondary circuits.  There are 12 volts on the positive side with key
on.

I tried bypassing the idle stabilizer.  I cleaned the grounds and they
at least look clean (as they did before I cleaned them).  The ECU
connector pins look clean as a whistle.

The only test that seemed to fail is that there is no voltage at
terminal 86 of the power supply relay.  87 and 30 are good but nothing
on 86.  The test sheet said to check for ground on 85 in this case, but
I'm not exactly sure how to do that with my new multimeter and am afraid
I might really mess something up messing around in there.  Should I just
go ahead and replace this relay?

Likewise, I am not sure how to check for ground between connector 85 of
the fuel pump relay and pin 3 of ECU, or how to check the wiring between
those components (I don't have a Bentley yet or any wiring diagrams and
don't know which pin is #3).  One test sheet mentioned that this ground
when bad might cause cutting out when turning corners, and when I
thought about it, many times that was the case though a few times it was
not.  But I can hear the fuel pump working so is this test moot?

I discounted the Hall sender since there is no spark from the rotor.  Is
that a mistake?  Could some problem with the AFM be causing no spark?
Could this be the infamous ignition switch problem even though there's
battery voltage at the + side of the coil?  How do I check the injectors
and do I need to?

Right now I'm pretty lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I
am very inexperienced at this.  I want to avoid the garage sharks at all
costs and want to discount everything before getting a new ECU.

Here's what I replaced so far:

Fuel Filter
Fuel Pressure Regulator
Temp II Sensor
Rotor
Plugs
O2 Sensor
Spark plug wires (six months old)
Distributor cap (six months old)

Thanks,

Marc Theune
85 GL Baby Bus
Atlanta, GA