Help no spark on #1 cyl only

[OrangeMustangGt]

Ok, this is a strange one.

I finished my oil pump and fired it up to find a nice 55psi of oil pressure. Next, i decided to set the timing. Then It stumped me.

My timing light wouldent work on the #1 cly for some reason....it does work on the other 7

So i took another known good wire and plug and put it on then grounded the sparkplug so i could watch it.....nothing again

I changed the cap(old one i had) still dident fix the issue.....I wish i had a spare cap and rotor!

Im begining to think this may be an electrical issue....Any ideas on how i can track this down?

 

[HISSIN50]

Though I have never seen it happen, I wonder if the PIP vane for #1 is somehow jacked? If it was, I'm not sure the car would run though.

The quick test would be to see if #1 has injector pulsing (quick check with a noid light or LED test light). If you have no injector pulsing on 1 and no spark, I'd wonder about the PIP.

That's weird Kyle. On a plus note, I just saw your other thread. You really take care of business my friend! Nicely done.

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

Thanks man....i was hoping you would chime in!

I just went right out and checked pulsing like this: Using a 12v test light, i went from the red #1 injector wire to ground....I got power constant when ing. is on.
I went across the 2 wires (red+tan) with the test light and got nothing while cranking....Did i do this correct? Is it possible to have a bad PIP and still run as it does? Maby this is why i had one glowing primary a while back with my turbo?

I did pull off the vane wheel in the dist and it looked ok....although #1 is slightly smaller.....made that way.

Another strange thing...

If i twist the dist way out of whack i can get it to spark, but its soo far off that i cant get to the line....barely runs

It cant be my cap and rotor because with the Ignition box i have, it will jump a spark a good 2".....I can lift the dist cap and actually look inside as its running....and it has nice sparks jumping to all the posts except #1!!!! Im going crazy. Its one thing after another......First no oil pressure....now this!! ARGG

 

[urban96]

hows the car tuned?

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

its just the stock computer now.....i pulled out my chip

 

[urban96]

any way to test a different ECU? you also said you had an ignition box, maybe try bypassing that too

 

[reddy351]

Have you checked the plug wire? Sounds stupid, I know. I am no "scholar" when it comes to car electronics or the EEC computers, but I can't imagine that our cars computers have the ability (even by mistake) to cut fuel and spark to one cylinder.

If it is a bad wire, maybe the header was glowing because the fuel wasn't being lit until it made it into the hot header surface.

 

[HISSIN50]

Kyle, what a weird one.

You have the injector test down. There's constant key-on 12 volts, and the computer pulses the ground to excite the injector. Because you also have no spark on that cylinder, I think that kinda rules out the computer (if you had lost only injector firing on 1, it could have been the injector driver for that cylinder).

As you said, your PIP sounds normal (number 1 is the index, hence it's different size).

Now tell us more about how you rotated the dizzy and got spark (from plug 1?). That would be totally oddball. When we bring the car into 'time' (ignition timing), we also time the injectors. This is why you can toss a dizzy in at any old position and if you had no obstructions, you could spin it however much you needed to get it in time. However, the plug wires do need to be on the correct cap terminals or the PIP get's out of whack. You didnt have to do any weirdness with the forced induction where you might have the wires off by one terminal, with the dizzy rotated to compensate? That could cause an issue.

I honestly dont have a great idea Kyle. I'll think about it for a bit and see if something comes to mind. It's quite a unique issue IMHO.

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

I set the balancer at 0 deg and stabbed the dizzy at #1 terminal. I fired up the car.....put on the timing light....nothing to the #1 wire

then i just turned the dizzy while the car was running and i was able to get it to blink when it was way out of wack, however it wouldent run with the dizzy turned out that far....i can only geta few blinks and they werent at all near the line.

Im starting to suspect the dizzy.....even though it has a fairly new pip (2 years) and a new TFI module also.

new distributors are 100- with core from autozone.....but i hate to just throw parts at it......

maby ill wait till my brother gets home and ill steal the dist from his 94' gt

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

whatever it is...its getting worse!

To test my ignition, i took the dist out and removed the cap. Then I put a wire directly to the coil and to a spark testor. With the ignition on, I turned the distributor by hand and verified spark at each pip vane.....they all had great spark.
Also, i did verify that I was getting injector pulsing.

I bought a new cap and rotor and put it all togther......now it wont even start. If i hold it at full throttle it will barely run and #1 cyl is still not firing because it was stone cold!

i Pulled codes and got MAF below voltage and Spout grounded.....BUT its not....damn

im going nuts here! HELP! Why did my car all of the sudden self-destruct?!

 

[Synned]

Question...is the rotor not always hot? Like when the car is running, doesn't the circuits get completed by the rotor touching the terminal on the cap?
Or does the PIP make the rotor fire at the exact time that it passes the terminals.
I guess if it was always hot spark would be jumping everywhere.

 

[HISSIN50]

Joe, as you surmised there's not constant power to the rotor - the coil isnt made for 100% DC (the field constantly collapses).

Kyle, FWIW, at 1 ATM, you should see a fat blue spark jump atleast .40 inches. It sounds like you're there but it was worth reiterating.

The SPOUT code could be something (or not since you've done so much work to the car). If your spout wiring is grounding out, that's an issue. This can be a physical fault from the PIP to the computer (including wiring), to include a bad TFI module. If you have a spare TFI, I'd toss it on for giggles. Also, if you test the SPOUT wire (at the SPOUT connector is a good place), you should see close to 2/3 of battery voltage. If you're seeing close to 5 volts, the car will run like crap. I mean total dog crap, missing and sputtering bad.

Sorry to not have any concrete ideas. It's just not an issue I've come across before.

Good luck.

 

[OrangeMustangGt]

The worst thing possible happined. I fixed it but i dont know how......I was turning the car over with a wrench watching spark from the coil for every cylinder....It was not sparking, then suddenly it was.....

I put everything back togther and found a cyl not firing....I had a bad inj. plug.

Could the computer sense no injector and stop firing #1???

Anyhow i also have a bad mass air, i swapped my brother's out because of a CE light and I'll be damned the car runs great with his.

soo.....it runs and i need a new mass air, but im pissed because i dont know what was wrong!

 

[HISSIN50]

The worst thing possible happined. I fixed it but i dont know how......I was turning the car over with a wrench watching spark from the coil for every cylinder....It was not sparking, then suddenly it was.....

I put everything back togther and found a cyl not firing....I had a bad inj. plug.

Could the computer sense no injector and stop firing #1???

Anyhow i also have a bad mass air, i swapped my brother's out because of a CE light and I'll be damned the car runs great with his.

soo.....it runs and i need a new mass air, but im pissed because i dont know what was wrong!

Kyle, the old puter has no real-time feedback about a bad injector. Even if the driver for an injector goes south (right in the puter itself), the computer can't do anything to shut down that cylinder.

I suppose that's nice that you fixed it. I do know how that goes when you fix something and don't know what you did. Chances are that it will act up again and you will have another opportunity to track it down.

Nice work tracking down the MAF issue. You could check output voltages and compare them but it's really not worth the hassle IMHO.

Good luck.