QuestionJust changed out the water pump ( bear ). Car would start and run prior to this but made grinding noise and AC/Drive belts were chewed up, thus the water pump. Per manual, disconnected -side battery. Once a piece parts restored, car would turn over for some time and try to start but die. It is at a certified mechanis now and he said it will run when gas induced into carb. He has found that there is no voltage pulse at the injectors. Why would a battery disconnect affect the injector voltage? Is there a work around to remedy this anaomoly? Or, is there something that must be initialized on the computer?
AnswerHi Dick,
The failure of the injector pulse is, I believe, part of the safety system to prevent a fire should there be a crash where the engine stops running. The controller shut down power to the injectors, the fuel pump and the spark coil when the engine stops turning over. But of course you are cranking the engine with the starter motor... so why is there a shutdown? The answer is probably that both the sensors in the distributor that produce the signal to the controller that says the engine is turning over are not successfully doing that. Thus, the power shut down occurs about 1 second after you start the cranking. Either the sensors are not getting power, the signals are not being generated or they aren't getting to the controller. To test this just run a fault code readout on the controller memory:
Try using the ignition key: turn it "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on" (doing this quickly, no longer than 5 seconds). By "on" I mean just the normal position when the engine is running, not the cranking position. The 'check engine'light will remain on when you leave the key in the "on" position with the engine still not running. But then watch the 'check engine' light to begin flashing, then pause, flashing, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and keep track of the numbers. Repeat the readout and verify the counts are correct. Then group them in pairs in the order that they came out, thus forming two digit numbers. You may notice that the pause is shorter between the digits of a given number, and longer between the numbers themselves. Then send me a 'follow-up' question telling me the results of your readout. By the way, 55 will be the last number (two groups of 5 flashes each) and that is the code for "end of readout". The sensor fault codes are 11 and or 54, because there are two separate sensors in the distributor. Of course the camshaft has to be turning the distributor rotor for signals to be generated, but that should he happening because you replaced the timing belt.
I have the troubleshooting manual for the 3.0L engines and we can look up the possibilities of what is wrong based upon what fault codes you show. There is also an essay on fault codes at the site:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
which gives the meaning of the code numbers. But then you need to get specific info for what exactly might be the diagnostic tests or parts to replace to complete the repair. Let me know the codes and I can give you some direction.
Roland
