@paradox
yes i tried that. no start at all. i know its supposed to at least start and then shut off.

@******
how would i backprobe the ecu? honestly i have no idea how to do that.

this seems like such a stupid problem. oh well i have to wait till friday to test everything anyway so not in too much of a hurry. so its the fuel switch in the afm or the actual fuel relay? either way im testing all of those. i have 2 afm's at the moment and also 3 fuel relays. i will figure this out damnit

 

The name is "satch" and you backprobe by inserting a small paperclip into the back of the ecu plug your checking while it is plugged into the ECU. Reason for this is the tight fit available thus making it hard to insert the multimeter probe itself. Take a multimeter and check for voltage by putting the red terminal from the meter to the clip and place the black terminal of the meter to a ground. You could use one of the bolts that holds the ecu into place for a ground. Make sure though that the clip inserted into the rear of the plug "does not" come into contact with a grounding source. In the emission section of the FSM, as stated earlier, there are values listed which will tell you if the sensor and whatnot is within spec. Some things require checking after the car is warmed up and key turned to the "on" position. These specifics are found within the chart as listed in the emission control section. There are also other posts which you could do a search on to clarify certain elements dealing with this procedure.

 

thanks for the info.

sorry about getting the name wrong satch. that was my bad. i was tryin to read something, write a paper and reply here at the same time.

 

well got it fixed. took it to a shop who did some diagnostics and said that i had this:

poor quality fuel and replace fuel filter
bad air flow meter sensor (bullshit to this)
water thermo sensor
gas in crankcase

the bad gas was the cause of all my problems.

i had replaced the AFM and tested it with a multimeter and it worked just fine. when i got the car back from them i could tell they took it apart and i figured they broke it. so i just got another one from a junkyard for 34 bucks and i tested it there and it worked. i installed it on my car this morning.

the water thermo sensor sounds like some more bs because i had replaced that and never had a problem with it.

gas in the crankcase...im not sure? i just did an oil change less than 100 miles ago. so that sounded like some way to get more money out of me.

replaced the fuel filter to be safe. and drained the fuel and replaced it with some new gas.

i go to start it. all my problems are gone. starts right up.

the BEST part is that this shop wanted 900 dollars to do all this. screw that i'll save that kind of money for a rebuild. so again, thank you everyone for the help.

 

OK so I got my 86 GXL running tonight, but found a saw blade zip tied to hold the AIR FLOW METER open a little bit. When I removed this bit of jankity redneck fix, I found the car wouldn't start. So, do I put the saw blade back? Or is there a better way to resolve my problem.

These are the engine related mods... (Bought it like this)
1986 GXL
Header
3 inch exhaust
Cone air filter, sort of SRI style.