NEWB to the boards, Electrical nightmare.
 

Hi, new to the boards, I picked up a toy the other day, 85 gsl-se streetport by rotary performance in Garland, Tx. The previous owner had installed the battery backwards, couldnt figure out why it wasnt getting fuel and swapped the fuel pump/filter to no avail. I jumped the F/P wirring(the white test connector on the passenger side underneath the AFM) and F/P still didnt cut on, so for shits and grins I energized the pump through the connector and I guess I flipped the stuck relay(dont know which one) back in the on position. :scratch: All the leads in and out of the fusible link are all getting power, sounds like both the main relays on the driverside are clicking when ignition turned to the on position, injectors are clicking. The car will idle but will run like crap and intermittently the car will 'wake the f'ck up'(aka: has all power back). I personally think the ecu is probably trash but have not ruled out the wirring to the pump yet. If I am getting full voltage to the f/p, can I assume the ecu is toast??? Thanks for any input.

Hum I would replace the main battery cables and then get a multimeter and start testing. Oh man yea that's a major screw up with the battery he's lucky it didn't explode. Uh let's see some pics this sounds like a nice ride.

I would be looking at the fusible links for the injection system to determine if one is loose or failing.

Also might have a loose injector clip at the injector.

You can do a pin test at the ECU to determine this also.

The procedure can be found in the FSM. The link is in my signature.

Your trailing ignitor is obviously working, because all '84-'85 models had a fuel pump relay that is controlled by the trailing ignition. If bad ignitor, you get no fuel.

Sounds to me like maybe your leading ignitor has an intermittant problem. It could be caused by aged internal components or less than stellar connections. The engine will run kinda on trailing only, as you're finding out, but then when leading decides to work for you, all power is available. Does that make sense?

I mention this as the possible cause of your power problem because A) I was working on an '84 automatic with an intermittant trailing ignitor that nearly left me stranded due to the fuel pump shutting off every time the ignitor would go on the fritz. They say that with solid state components, it either works or it doesn't. However that can literally also apply in this case because when it was wporking, it was working, and when it wasn't working, it wasn't. There was no middle ground like weak sparks you can get with points or whatever. I changed out the ignitor with a quickness.

And B) I've accidentally discovered that if your ignition switch is ON and you connect the battery, the sudden surge can kill an ignitor, as happened on PercentSevenC's '83 GSL a little while ago. Perhaps having the battery hooked backwards could have caused a related weirdness to occur on your leading ignitor?

Check your leading ignition for proper function (sparks!) and get back to us.

What Jeff says.

Yesterday I replaced my trailing igniter, which was intermittent: all bad running problems are now fixed. For two days the SE was hard starting, low power, popping in exhaust, etc.

Use some "Heat sink compound" from radio Shack or any electronics store on the metal surface that seats against the distributor to help dissipate heat from the igniter. Costs $3, and while you're at it, get a $3 12v. buzzer from Radio Shack that you can attach to the two test lugs on the ECU. Then when you startup you will get a 2 sec blast on the buzzer followed by any stored error code, which you can dope out from the FSM.

If you need an ECU they're available for about $50 from guys who are parting a car. I've got a spare.

Report back here, especially if you solve the problem.

I drove the car last night and I thought I heard a faint click when power came online... f'ing strange. I am thinking relay problem at this point. Any one have any parts cars in the DFW area???

UPDATE: Rx-7doctor was partially right. Found loose connection at one of the fusible links, the previous owner had put a bullet connector on one of the leads and didnt actually put a bullet in it.... so while wiggling wires the motor died, I had the biggest shit eaters grin possible, once I put a connector on it, it cranked right back up, drove it around the parking lot, still same thing. I know for sure she is getting fuel, I know if I mess with the afm the rpm changes(good), ohm'd out the tps sensor and it has no holes and is within spec(also changed rpm when at idle when 'fingering' it.) Ohm'd out the ignition coils, all within spec and both matching each other within 1%, I switched some relays around to no avail... I am leaning towards ignition at this point now(where in the hell is that ign module at, fsm needs a search button LOL!) Ohh! also found a nest of fireants living in the car, I know fireants f'ing love wirring, I hate fireants, little demonic bastards. I will keep you guys posted.

quick question, I picked up a fc1000 jacobs box the other day, if I understand right, you are pretty much tapping in between the factory coil wirring, my question is does the factory ignition module need to be fully operational for the fc1000 to work correctly?

FOUND IT! when I was checking for spark originally, I only checked one of the trailing plug wires... my mistake, the leading has little to no juice! :lol: Its about 4 on a saturday, all the yards are about to close so I think I am going to give Rotary Performance a call to see if they have any j109's. If anyone has any j109's in the dfw area, please give me a shout. Gotta get this thing running. Thanks guys!

Correction: RP is closed on Saturdays. Going to have to call the local yards.

well crap, swapped out the modules thinking it would move on me, didnt change anything... I will need to check out to make sure the coils are getting full power, if those check out, looks like I will be digging into the distributor :(