I did a clutch on my friends 88 rx-7 and now it refuses to start. It cranks fine. I looked at one of the plugs, and found it to be wet with fuel. I tried to check for spark, and it seems to have no spark on the plug I looked at (this is a test to the best of my ability with only one person, so not positive on the no-spark, but I'm pretty damn sure). Where do I start looking for no spark? if any grounds happened to be disconnected or fried, would that affect the spark system at all? Please help me, I have no idea where to start looking on this, I never expected it to stop running after a clutch. PS: I have everything I disconnected reconnected. Oh, and this car doesn't have like, glow plugs does it? The plug I removed looked really wierd to me (A straight 6 BMW person).

 

*tap tap*

 

No one has any idea where to start looking for a car that doesn't seem to be sparking? Simple tests? Continuity to ground anywhere, c'mon people, I know you know this, please help me. This 1/2 day clutch job has so far dragged on for 3 full days of work.

 

Well, my guess is you probably forgot the big ground where that's supposed to be bolted to the engine block, or it doesn't have a good connection, but I can't be positive. Basically check all the fuses, try to find a better way to test for spark (don't have ANYBODY that can turn it over? You don't even have to use a plug, just set the boot next to a bolt and it should arc to it.

 

yeah, but I didn't have anybody tonight that wold do it. The engine seems to be grounded fine, the starter cranks efortlessly. I didn't check fuses, that flew past my mind, but no spark probably wouldn't be a fuse problem, would it? Is there any way if like the engine got a big jolt from say, the starter, that it would burn up any grounds or anything? (PS. this didn't happen to my knowledge, but I seriously didn't mess with anything that I know of, so I don't know what the deal is, and grounds seem to be a likely culprit)

 

oh, and sorry for my ignorance, but can you point me towards where all of the fuses are on this car?

 

I'd check the ones on the driver side strut tower to begin with, specifically the EGI fuses, then I'd double check the CAS connection (it's the round sensor on the front cover to the right of the waterpump & alternator) Then, after that was verified I'd double check the big ground that goes on the back of the engine, if that's all good to go, I'd check for spark/fuel, kind of hard to say without knowing those.

 

go to iluvmyrx7.com for the 2nd gen FSM. every picture you can think of is there. second, does it just crank and nothing or does it crank, then catch then just crank... its either

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr or rrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrr

you might just be flooded beyond belief. to check for spark, pull one of the cables and hold it near the chassis while a friend cranks. to check for fuel, pull the plugs after cranking and check, or hold a lighter to the exhaust (my favorite). if your flooded.. maybe just deflood it. check the vacuum lines (including the one below the intake duct) check both plugs for fuel.

check the GROUNDS. the motor ground is on top of the tranny. important ground. im sure everythings hooked up right? when i have starting problems i just grab every conection and jiggle it to make sure its connected right.

 

The spark plugs are wet, so I know it has fuel. The engine will crank until the cows come home without changing pitch at all, never ctaches. The big ground is the one that I found by the starter, correct? That one is definantly hooked up. It sucks because I can't work on this until I get back from class in 6 hours.

 

The car will not start if you fouled the plugs. You can crank till the cows come home, it wount happen. You need to unflood the car, and replace the fouled plugs.

To unflood, remove all the plugs, and the EGI fuse (the fuse in the engine bay closest to the inside) and crank the motor for 5-10 seconds.

If you have repeded this several times and it is still not starting, then you may need to squirt in some oil into the chamber to create compression. Do this with a small seringe or something - in the spark plug holes. Remember that you need just a little bit on each rotor, and on each apex seal. So squirt it in there and then rotate the shaft a bit. You should hear a woosh, and thats when you know you have the next surface area.

You need to replace the plugs with the rotary friendly NGK plugs. You'll need 2 BUR7EQ, and 2 BUR9EQ. The 9's go on the top and the 7's go on the bottom. Summit has them under #NGK-3559, and #NGK-5483.

enjoy.
-a

 

umm i have unfouled plugs before. it is actaully easy.

 

nevermind. *EDIT

 

my friends 87 SE does almost the same thing every now and then. Pull the egi fuse (I guess either one??!?) and crank the engine 3 times for like 10 seconds each time, reinstall the fuse and see if it will crank. If you take out the plugs again crank it with them out. Regardless a simple troubleshooting manual would help you a lot.

 

if its just cranking.. then nothings firing so youre missing spark definitly. CHECK GROUNDS!!

 

Okay: Update!

The engine still cranks fine, but is definantly missing spark, I had a friend carnk while I tried to get it to arc, I even tried to get it to scock me, nothing doing. I checked the fuses I could find (like 6 or so in a small rectangular black box) and all were fine. Where do I go from here. does this system ground out somewhere in the engine bay? can I try checking for power anywhere to narrow it down? Like, on one side of a certain fuse or something.

TIA
Brian Jagger

 

Oh, and again, definantly has fuel, definantly no spark. Definantly fuses are good. Definantly has the big ground to the engine hooked up and working well, if it weren't the starter wouldn't crank so nicely.

 

anyone have any more clue about this? why it is just not sparking, we need some more info on it so we can get this crap going again.

 

id pull out the multimeter and start measuring ohmage.

 

where would we check?