Longhaul

1988 Convertible, 5 spd, NA

The previous owner took out the crank angle sensor, put it back in (after messing with it) and now the car will not start.

I have never used a timing light before (maybe 20 years ago in shop to tune a lawn mower).

How do I get the CAS lined up close enough to get the engine to fire so that I can fine tune the leading and trailing marks?

What do I look for when using the timing light?

I have spent the last 4 hours searching for this info with out any luck.

I'll be thrilled if I can get it to crank.

Thanks!

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

pull the CAS out, rotate the engine so the pointer aims at the right side groove on the pulley. now line up the dot on the CAS gear with the line embossed in the CAS housing and drop the CAS straight down the hole trying not to allow the gear to spin, once down in place turn it a tiny bit clockwise and this should put you about dead on with factory time.

Stranded

did it, didn't start. it was off, however. I t ink it is now flooded. I'll search for the how to unflood thread. I'm sure there is one out there.
thanks!

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

It helps if you remove the CAS cover and hold the rotor with your finger to prevent movement when you restab it.

Longhaul

Got the CAS properly lined up. Still does not start. I will try the de-flood proceedure that is in many threads. I'll start by just removing the relay for the fuel pump and stepping on the accelerator all the way to get some oil in for compression. The car has not been run for a while.

I won't get to this until Friday or Saturday, but will let you know the results. I'm very tempted to pull the car out to a big hill near by and try to pop start it on the way down. Can this be successful?

spot_skater

If it's very badly flooded, I'd just try the EGI comp fuse trick a few times.

Pull the fuse, accelerator to the floor, Crank for 5-10 seconds. Wait like 30 seconds, do it again. Pop fuse back in, try to start with accelerator to the floor. Make sure she's out of gear, when she starts get off the gas so you dont' rev the **** out of it.

This is how I've unflooded my car the few times she's flooded. Just make sure you're battery's got decent charge.

Longhaul

Well I could not locate the relay for the fuel pump, so I removed two of the plugs and let it crank for a little bit. I was a concerned about an explosion from the gas being pumped into the air!

This did not do the trick. I pulled the car to the top of a big hill and pop started it on the way down. It sent out a bunch of black smoke for a while and then ran clean. I could not get any power and the car would not idle. To keep it from stalling, I had to keep my foot feathering the gas.

I decided to check the air filter and found a rag and a whole bunch of consumed nuts filling the filter! I cleaned it out and was able to start the car with out the pop start method.

The car runs very clean (no smoke out the back now), but it has no power. I can rev it up to 7K RPM with out any trouble, but when I ease the clutch in, the slightest hill is too much for it to climb. The engine stops running if I don't feather the gas. I set the timing by holding the RPMs as close to 1k as possible.

What could be causing the lack of power? I am going to try the fuel filter, in case it is clogged up.

Getting closer!

Any clues

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

That scares me.

Have you done a compression test?

Longhaul

I just dropped the car off with some one who can. When I can get it started, it puffs out a cloud of white smoke that smells like gas. It goes away very quickly (< 10 sec) and they runs with out any smoke what so ever.

The previous owner put synthetic oil in and the tank has old gas(about 2 gallons), which I diluted with 4 gallons of high test.

I need to correct the runs fine up to 7K RPM. It has trouble between 3K and 4K, then seems to climb o.k. after that.

If it does start up, it will run for a while by itself at elevated RPMs, but when it starts to slow down, it struggles @ 800 RPM until it dies in about 10 seconds.

I'll post the result of the compression test when I get it, and... start searching for thread s on "How to rebuild your 13b"... while I wait.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

The trouble between 3k/4k could be the 3800rpm hesitation. Check your engine-->firewall grounds.

If you keep your foot on the gas, does it stall out? If not, could be a vacuum leak. There's an archived thread about idle problems you should read.

Longhaul

It runs fine if I keep my foot on the gas. It is hard to get it to stay steady at anything less than 1.5K RPM.

I will hunt for the idle problem thread.

Thanks