1986 325e power at ignition coil but no spark

[jdob808]

hey everyone im new to this group and to owning an e30 im a pretty young kid trying to daily his shit box so please be nice to me lol. I got this car a couple months ago and since then i’ve replaced the timing components, cooling system, and everything related to spark but when i went to crank this car im reading 12v at the green wire attached to the ignition coil but i’m not getting any spark coming out of the ignition coil plug wire. I was wondering if i somehow bought a defective unit or if there is something else that could be controlling that circuit. another thing i noticed is that i get 12v at both power and ground on the ignition coil up until the point i turn the key then it will only be 12v at the green wire.

1986 325e standard trans

[tomstin]

The E models use two sensors on the flywheel, once is the Engine Speed Sensor (basically counts the teeth on the flywheel) and the Reference Point Sensor (looks for one tang welded to the flywheel) to tell the engine ECU that the engine is turning over and it knows the position of the crankshaft. Without knowing both of those, the ECU won't fire the sparkplugs.

The sensors are mounted to the bell housing on the driver's side with the connectors on a bracket mounted to the rear of the valve cover.

Did you disconnect them during any service and maybe reverse them?
Their resistance can be tested using a multi meter.
On occasion, the tang has been know to fall off or someone swapped a flywheel without the tang.

Look for the wiring diagram for you year and model here: http://wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/