89 Prizm (Toyota Corolla) No Start HELP! - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

npotebnya · 02-22-2010, 10:02 PM

Hello,
I am lost and need some ideas. I did a timing belt on my friends 89 Geo Prizm. All went well, I aligned all the marks correctly and started it up. It ran great but after about 30 seconds it just died and will not restart (Cranks, but no start). I checked my timing marks and they are dead on. I then checked for spark and found none, I put a noid light on and checked for injection pulse and this is where things are a bit odd. If it click on the ignition and rotate the distributor it will pulse the injectors twice before stopping all together. Then if I shut of the ignition and turn it back on it will do it again the exact same way. I tried swapping the igniter (Which is external on this year) and I was going to change the distributor but because it's a one year only (Without internal igniter) its hard to find so I actually took some pickups out of a later distributor and soldered them in and set the air gap to about .010. But, still no change. All the fuses are good I took a voltmeter to them and check for continuity, I have fuel when cranking. I am a bit lost and am looking for ideas at this point. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Nate

***SCT*** · 02-22-2010, 10:45 PM

Check the spark plugs? If you're getting something through the wires, last thing would be the spark plugs themselves.

npotebnya · 02-22-2010, 10:58 PM

Actually, I just put all brand new plugs in. But, the thing is there is not spark coming form the distributor. I put a new plug on the end of a wire and cranked the motor with the plug grounded and there wasn't any signs of spark. Then I pulled a plug and looked at it and it wasn't even wet so I tested for fuel pressure by loosening the line to the fuel rail and cranking and there is fuel pressure. But, the injectors are not getting a signal (Other than the first two inital pulses it gets) to feed the cylinders. So, I am assuming it must all be related. The distributor tells the ecu to pulse the injectors and the distributor feeds info to the ecu and the ecu tells the coil to fire? I think that is right, but correct me if I am wrong. I figured that is how it must work with a magnetic pickup. I was reading somewhere that if the ECU doesnt get a response from the igniter it will shut down after 2 pulses but I can't confirm that anywhere. Once again, any ideas are much appreciated.

Mr.Nutcase · 02-23-2010, 03:17 PM

Double check your work...... check the timing... maybe there is disconnected ground?

***SCT*** · 02-23-2010, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Nutcase

Double check your work...... check the timing... maybe there is disconnected ground?

Or simply loose.

npotebnya · 02-23-2010, 07:45 PM

I think it was the ignitor that went bad
actually. I was testing the system by free spinning the distributor with the ignition on and watching my noid light. It's interesting because it would pulse twice and the. Stop until I re-cycled the ignition. Anyway, I put it all back together today and it started right up. The only things that had changed were the igniter and the ground wire that runs under the igniter. I haven't tossed the old igniter back in yet to make sure that was the problem but
I will and will post the results when I do. I was just so happy to get it running I didn't want to mess with it and have it die.

Thanks for your help everybody,
Nate

Mr.Nutcase · 02-25-2010, 04:06 PM

no problem.....
you welcome... glad it's fixed...