BMW Repair: bmw 325e starting problem, connector pins, 1987 bmw 325

Question
I have a 1987 bmw 325 e 2 dr sedan, parked car several days ago and came out to restart and had no spark, tested coil with a static and dynamic test, also both sensors in the bell housing(SPEED AND REFERENCE SENSOR) both function and I at one point removed the reference sensor and ran a piece of metal in front of it to verify it was working, each time I could hear the relays clicking both with the sensor test in the bell housing and with the metal test but still no signal from coil,test light shows coil to be constant closed circut (LIVE WIRE HOT AND REFERENCE WIRE GROUNDED) and no signal or pulse comming from the computer, is there any input signals to the computer, fuses or relays that may be blocking my pulse to the coil but still allowing the refrence sensors to operate the injection and fuel system? everything else seems to function well
pleae help    thanks

Thomas

Answer
Thomas,
 I'm VERY impressed... nice work!  The 325e uses a slightly different system than the "i" cars do.  As the reference sensors are on the flywheel instead of the harmonic balancer.  To my knowledge there is nothing that could block the signal from the ECU to the coil.  As long as the ECU is recieveing a reference signal (and it is, based on your tests) it should fire the coil.  I know that some people have disconnected the ECU harness and cleaned the pins and it has solved their problems.  Since you are grounded out at all points on the coil the problem lies between the ECU and the coil.  There are only a couple scenarios that this could be:
 
1.  The wiring itself is grounding out to the frame.  Rodents like the casings on wires, and chew through them quite often.  This is highly unlikely, but dont count it out yet.

2.  The Connector pins are corroded.  I've seen this happend and after cleaning, it allowed the vehicled to run correctly.  (Possibility)

3.  The ECU is not working correctly.  Even though the ECU is recieving signal its not sending out a signal.  I've seen this more often than anything else.  You sound like you are pretty competent electrically.  You could open the ECU and see if you can find any shorted spots on the board.  

 I feel rather confident that your ECU is bad, not because its an easy fix, but because I've seen this too many times before.  If anything, see if you can borrow someone's ECU just to test with.

 Good luck,
 Josh