QuestionRoland- Thanks so much for your very good advice. We checked the fuel system and the EGR to find everything working. Now for the kicker, I set the crank to #1 TDC and removed the timing belt cover so that we could check the cam timing. Right on the money. Except one thing--- I removed the distributor cap and the rotor was pointed at the #2 plug. I figure that something made the belt slip on the intermediate shaft pulley. Faced with the ordeal of disassembling the front of the engine to reset the belt on the int. shaft pulley, we decided to take the easy route and reorder the plug wires on the dist. cap. Just shifted each wire back one hole. Car started immediately. The son is busy now removing all of the carpeting and padding to dry. He's quite happy to have his car running. Thanks you saved us a lot of money and headaches.
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Followup To
Question -
Greetings! My son had his first encounter with a water filled ditch last week while driving home on an ice slick road. He slid off to the right side and when I arrived the car was on about a 45 degree slope with the passenger side in the water up to the middle of the passenger seat. BTW he was unharmed. We winched the car out with to discover no visible damage to the body just a ton of mud and water in the pass. compartment. I located the logic module and brought it inside and cleaned and dried it. The car has almost all functions working except it has no power to the coil. I have a Haynes Manual and I suspect a problem with the Auto Shutdown Relay but can't find it on this model.
Any help would be appreciated. The specifics for the car are: 87 Lebaron 4cyl EFI 2.2L/2.5L? auto trans coupe. Thanks!
Answer -
Hi Don,
I got your note, and thanks for the ratings.
Now that you have spark, I am still wondering about the fuel mixture. Do you hear the fuel pump running for a second or two when you turn on the key to run? And then when you have a helper (son) crank it over do you see a fine spray mist from the injector hitting the throttle plate? If not then that is one answer.
The other item that got submerged, possibly, is the egr valve and if that were stuck ajar then that would dilute the mixture sufficient to prevent starting. It is on the passenger end of the engine near the fire wall. So try using a flat blade screwdriver in the slot of the stem (inside the saddle shape just below the round top) to make sure it moves up against the spring action and then goes back down all the way to close. Spray some WD-40 on the stem to disperse any water around the stem.
Finally you might want to check the timing belt position by setting it at TDC for cyl 1 (note the rotor position and the timing mark on the flex plate to set that up), then look in the peep hole of the top timing cover to see if the hole in the cam sprocket is lined up. That belt could have slipped even though it is still working (otherwise you wouldn't be getting spark). So those are some things to look into.
Good luck.
Roland
Hi Don,
Fortunate that the body of both driver and coupe was undamaged I'd say. I have the same car in an '89 version.
In '87 the engine controller was split into two parts: a logic module in the passenger compartment on the passenger side cowl (to the right of the passenger's right shin) and a power module under the hood on the left inner fender. The ASD relay is built in as a part of the power module and can't be removed and replaced as far as I know. But the ASD is activated from the logic module which in turn depends upon getting a signal from the hall effect sensor in the distributor. I am more suspicious of the logic module than the power module being the problem because of its immersion history.
First, see if there are any fault codes shown on the check engine light. Go on-off-on-off-on with the ignition key within a total time of 5 seconds and leave the key on. The check engine light will be on but then begin to flash, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause, group the resulting numbers in pairs to form the two digit readout code numbers and see what you get. 55 will be the last number so formed which is the code for "end of readout". An 11 code would mean the signal from the distributor is not getting to the logic module, while a 42 code would implicate the ASD not being driven by the logic module.
Second, I would measure the voltage at the + post of the coil during a 5 second crank. Watch for 12v to be there for 5 seconds (normal), 1-2 seconds (problem with the signal not getting from the distributor to the logic module), or not at all (problem with the ASD or the power module). Let me know what happens and if it isn't obvious why no spark we can do some further checking.
Roland
AnswerHi Don,
Thanks for the update. That is an interesting finding. At first I was concerned about whether there would be a problem to have the intermediate shaft out of time because there is a statement in the shop manual that the oil pump shaft(which has a gear that is driven by the intermediate shaft) would not be properly positioned relative to the distributor shaft with which it is mated.
But then I now suspect that the mismatch is not so great that you couldn't get around the problem as you did by reassigning the wires on the cap.
You might want to take a careful look at the entire timing belt at this time to verify that it hasn't been damaged somewhere along its length when it slipped on the intermediate shaft or was compromised by its dip in the water.
Roland
P.S. Sorry to be so slow in replying. The Allexpert server has not been working for the past two days.
