Desperate. No crank, no fuel pump. Suggestions?

[Eddiefury]

Hi all,

I've only posted on R3v twice before. I actually have an 89/90 engine in an 87 vert. I had to pull the 89/90 wiring harness out and put the 87 back in. Even though the 87 was a lot worse off. Anyway, I went over the 87 harness and repaired (taped up) portions of it. It looked much better when I was done. I had everything wired and attempted to start the car and got nothing. Here's the details of what I know.

1. New battery
2. Tested voltage across the coil in the run position. Getting 13 volts to the + terminal on coil and also getting 13 volts in center.
3. Dash lights up when car is in run.
4. ICV buzzes in run.
5. I hear a relay click when I apply the + post on the battery under the dash near the steering column.
6. The ECU, fuel pump relays seem to be in the correct spots and have swapped them with spares I have lying around. No change.
7. I noticed I can not roll down the windows right now while the car is in run.
8. I did a manual swap and believe my wiring is correct. All green wires are nutted together and the blues are nutted together also. I have reverse lights .
9. I checked my grounds and they all seem to be fine.

I have wiring diagrams but I figured maybe someone could assist with the problem if I posed the question. If I need to post pics just let me know.

[jlevie]

Cranking means that the starter turns over the engine. Firing while cranking is an attempt to start. Which problem do you have?

The ICV buzzing when the ignition is on says that the DME is running, which says that the main relay is closing. That relay must be the five pin variant. If the engine cranks, but while cranking there is no spark and no fuel pump operation, the CPS could be bad or you might have swapped the CPS and Cyl ID connectors.

If the engine won't crank, either the starter isn't correctly connected, in particular the solenoid control lead, or the bypass for the Park/Neutral switch isn't correct. If you used the start from the later model engine it has two small lugs. One is for the starter solenoid and the other is for the unloader control. If the solenoid control wire is on the wrong lug the starter won't engage. The starter from your 87 engine would have only had one small lug.

As to (5) I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Eddiefury]

When I turn the key to start I get nothing. No fuel pump priming sound and no starter. What would kill both of those?

[jlevie]

The fuel pump on an E30 only runs when the DME sees timing data from a rotating engine. So you won't hear it run just because the ignition is on.

The first step is to check (with a meter or test light) to see if the solenoid control signal is presented to the starter when you turn the key to start. If it isn't trace back to the ignition switch to find out why. If solenoid control power is being presented to the starter see my note above about early vs late starters. If the starter is connected correctly, main power is present at the starter main lug, and the engine ground strap is good, the starter is bad.

[Eddiefury]

Thanks Jlevie. I'll check it tonight. I have 2 starters. The one in the car has 3 posts. The other one (old one) has 4 posts.

[jlevie]

The three post starter (one large and two small) would be a 9/87 or later. Which means that it has an unloader switch. Your 87 harness doesn't have a connection for the unloader lug where a later harness has a connector for each of the small lugs (which are different sized). So it is easy to get the small wire that controls the solenoid on the wrong post of the late model alternator.

[Eddiefury]

Well I feel stupid now... So I took a screwdriver across the leads to try and start it. Huge sparks, but no start. So I was going to put my other starter in. As I was beginning to unscrew the connections from the starter I noticed I hadn't tightened down the small lead. I believe this is the electrical lockout when you're starting the car. Yeah I could have kicked my own ass for just resting that lead on the post and putting the nut like 3 turns on. So I tightened that down and tried to start the car. The starter worked. But the car wouldn't start till i got my crank sensor and the pulse sensor on the correct connector. After I did that the fuel pump kicked in and I could figure out which line was the return and which was the fuel line. less than 5 min later it was running like a champ.

I wanna say thanks for the help Jlevie. You were a huge help with narrowing the problem!