HELP!!! This car is ruining my life!

So this is the whole story…

all I had to do was change a coolant hose.  Did that and whilst doing so thought I'd degrease the gearbox area as it was filthy.  Car then wouldn't start.  In thinking I may have got the distributor wet I took it apart and broke it.

So in changing the distributor thought I may as well change the timing belt at the same time.  Couldn't do it after getting half way through as I couldn't remove some of the pulleys due to seized nuts.  But did manage to reverse my steps and get a timing check and the belt back on.  Replaced dizzy to find it has a different connection.  Managed to get the old connection off and on the replacement dizzy.  Did oil change, filter change, sump gasket and rocker cover gasket whilst at it (although oil now appears to leak from the rocker cover somehow….side issue for now).

Car still will not bloody start!!!  It was running fine(ish) before just trying to change the hose.  The dizzy is 026 905 205 A instead of AA.  My assumption is that only the connection is different and so it shouldn't be this.  Any ideas as this is bringing me close to madness?

does the rev counter jiggle and does the fuel pump run while its cranking?

Fuel pump's a definite (as is fuel…had a thought that maybe after all my head scratching I'd simply ran out of fuel…alas no), rev counter is static as far as I remember.  It doesn't sound like it's trying to fire/crank…literally just starter motor if that helps narrow things

reason i ask is the k-jet fuel pump relay requires a rev counter signal to work. and if you have a revo signal then you have a hall signal! so if pump is running and you deffo have a k-jet pump relay then in theory you have a hall signal from dizzy.

have you checked for spark yet? maybe the rotor arm you have is incompatible with dizzy or cap

How would I go about checking for spark (I am that dumb with these things believe me!)?  I've put on the cap and rotor arm I had on before all of this so should be ok in theory…but then you never bloody know.  Just taken some quick snaps of the engine bay I'll put on in a sec, just incase there's something glaringly obvious in that way…fingers crossed!

If the rev signal isn't present what could that be…I ask as I bypassed the relay (replaced it with a fuse configuration) so that I could definitely hear the pump priming.

Oh and another strange one…the first few times I tried to start her the temperature gauge went straight up to max…but it's not doing this any more

take out a plug and rest the threded part on the inlet/rocker cover. crank it over and you should see a spark on the tip! but! if you get a strong small of fuel in the bores best to leave it till the fuel evaporates away and disable the pump relay (remove it!) before you try this.

the dizzy is older than your current one so it might need a different cap/arm, does tyhe arm sit snug on the shaft and not move when you try to rotate it?

Right…NO SPARK!!!  N nearly no battery now either by the sounds of it.  

The arm is the same as the one it came with so should be fine.  I've tried both caps to no avail.  I've changed the plug for a new one so it's not the plug.  The leads are only a few months old.  Could it be my dizzy rewiring?

this might sound silly but i did this once and i put the dizzy cap on the wrong

there is a location bit on the cap and the body

if it's not right then it wont start

worth a look

Thanks Jelly, it is…especially with my skills!  But I've tried 2 different caps and rotor arms so don't think it is…but I'll look tomorrow (after 5 days doing bits n bobs on her we need some time apart…).  I've got a feeling it's in the actual distributor so going to try another one, new cap, new arm (as the other 2 are both old), new sparks and lots of praying!  There's not a fuse or a relay to the dizzy is there?  I've not seen one on the list

no there's no fuse to the dizzy

i was scratching my head for ages and the cap was not quite located

Haha, fingers crossed!

ok no spark to the plugs, can you repeat the test but put the king lead on the rocker cover? the one to the middle point of the dizzy cap. that'll show you if you're getting a spark to the dizzy at least.  if not then it could be the new dizzy is bust as well, or perhaps the wiring from it to the tci unit is to blame.

if you look at the wires the 3 pins from the dizzy go straight to the tci unit in the scuttle. you also can check the tci for ign live between the pin 4 & pin 2, pin 2 is the earth and it should go direct to the battery -ve.  if you peel back the rubber bot on the tci plug you'll see the pin numbers, plus sometimes the tci itself has the numbers on it:

1 - green - coil -ve/pin 1
2 - brown - battery -ve
3 - brown/white - dizzy pin 1 or -
4 - black - coil +ve/15
5 - red/black - dizzy pin 3 or +
6 - green/white - dizzy pin 2 or 0

i had something similar on mine, theplug that goes into the dizzy was giving a bad connection, i got the missus to crank the engine whilst i waggled the plug, she started, took plug out and cleaned terminals, stretched em out a bit for a better contact, allgood since then

chris

yeah good call, worked on a 16v with the same problem the pins had opened up a bit so had to bend em shut again with a thin screwdriver

Cheers Chris, I'll have a play tonight…with the car I mean!!  

rubjonny said

ok no spark to the plugs, can you repeat the test but put the king lead on the rocker cover? the one to the middle point of the dizzy cap. that'll show you if you're getting a spark to the dizzy at least.  if not then it could be the new dizzy is bust as well, or perhaps the wiring from it to the tci unit is to blame.

if you look at the wires the 3 pins from the dizzy go straight to the tci unit in the scuttle. you also can check the tci for ign live between the pin 4 & pin 2, pin 2 is the earth and it should go direct to the battery -ve.  if you peel back the rubber bot on the tci plug you'll see the pin numbers, plus sometimes the tci itself has the numbers on it:

1 - green - coil -ve/pin 1
2 - brown - battery -ve
3 - brown/white - dizzy pin 1 or -
4 - black - coil +ve/15
5 - red/black - dizzy pin 3 or +
6 - green/white - dizzy pin 2 or 0

Sorry John, didn't see this post earlier.  Thank you for your patience!!

Today's efforts…

There's no spark to the king lead.  I'm assuming I needed to check for spark at the end of the lead going into the dizzy?  Although I did check both ways incase not and no spark.  I did find this lead off (with the green/yellow and red/black wires leading into it)

I don't know whether I inadvertently pulled it out when pulling out the king lead, but I tried it in both ways…n still no joy!  But just for reference, have I got it in the right way.  It looked like a positive sign at the top which I'm assuming is red/black and so in the right way (and if it is I shall be freeing that cable up properly don't worry!)

It's dark so struggling to do any more than that until Thursday.  When it comes for checking the tci connections do I just turn the ignition on and run a voltmeter thingy (oh yeah…I'm that technical) on those two pins to check for a current?

Is there a possibility now that my battery's flattened and not producing enough to create a spark?  I can still hear the starter and the fuel pump so I'm assuming not.

I cannot thank you all enough…for all this and just in general…especially at the moment when I can't afford to throw money at (useless usually) mechanics.  I just can't believe all this from me trying to clean the grease of the top of the gearbox but c'est la vie.

The plug you had disconnected from the coil would be the reason it wouldn't start, it controls the signal to the fuel pump/rev counter.  It doesn't matter which way up it is connected, if you pull the plug back off, you will see that the connectors on the coil are one piece of metal (ie go same place  :wink: )

Did you sort out the reason your temperature guage shot off the scale when you turn on the ignition? it sounds like you've knocked the connector off the temperature sensor and it is earthing on the engine block  

Ha, ok.  But even with that reconnected…no start!  If there's not enough battery the starter motor wouldn't go would it?  I'm so out of my depth!haha  Don't know how I've managed to fumble my way through so much with that car (oh ok…I do know…everyone's help on here )

And the temperature sensor seems to have sorted itself, but I will have a proper check over on Thursday.  I'm actually sick of this bloody car…but I know when she's going again I will love it so rough with the smooth n all that