No spark after head gasket replacement

[Scraggybeard]

Went to start up after head gasket replacement and no go. Checked spark at the plugs and there wasn't any. Heard next step is to check coil pack, correct? How do I do that? Another interesting thing I noticed is that when I turn key to the on position, the boost gauge rises to the halfway mark. I don't think I remember that happening before the work, could that be indicative of something? Thanks for any help, car is a 1996 gst.

 

[iiNFAMOUSCHRiS]

stock or aftermarket boost gauge?

 

[eric4g63]

im not sure about 2g but my 1g has a connecter beside the battery on the firewall and that makes the coil pack fire check there there are three of them its the second

 

[Scraggybeard]

Boost gauge is stock.

 

[boostront]

Are you sure you connected the crank sensor when you put it back together??

 

[Scraggybeard]

Yes, double and triple checked, seems to all be connected.

 

[Canadian_CD9A]

Sounds like you didn't hook a ground wire up.

 

[Scraggybeard]

There was a ground wire on the throttle harness tha I hooked up, any others? Didn't disconnect any from battery.

 

[May1989TalonTSiAWDst]

knock sensor?

 

[Scraggybeard]

After reading more, is it possible to install the crank sensor backwards? How do I know which way is correct?

 

[May1989TalonTSiAWDst]

slotted end goes to the front I think, mother flucker, the good old boys a chrysler installed mine upside down form what I can tell, in my haynes manual from what I could tell the wires are coming out the top, on my car the wires are on the bottom right freakin now. It wouldn't start, after they did a head gasket, tried to charge me 5 G for a car that dosen't run. Somehow I got it running last month with the crank sensor in backwards, it wouldn't idle, had to pedal it, and stalled out down the road, had to push start it to get it running, and goter home, good news is I only paid for parts on the head gasket 2 grand yeah!

Wires up, slot to back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he replaced every sensor on my car

Moral of the story I NEED A GARAGE IN WINTER

 

[Scraggybeard]

Did some sleuthing over the weekend, cam and crank sensors both appear to be installed correctly so I'm thinking the next step is to troubleshoot the wiring and electrical. As mentioned, I don't have any spark at the plugs. Can someone help with a step by step guide on testing wires, coil pack, etc? Thanks!

 

[turbo98eclipse]

The boost gauge thing is normal. Its supposed to do that. You have no spark at ANY of the plugs or did you only check one? Even if it was installed backwards you would still get spark, it would just be firing at the opposite time its supposed to.

you can check here http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-miscellaneous/217951-how-diagnose-no-start.html

With mine, I found I had plugged the coil pack into the crank sensor plug, and vise versa... Just something to check out

 

[Scraggybeard]

I took the wires 1 by 1 and connected to an external spark plug to check for spark, no spark out of any of the 4 wires. Thanks for the link, I'll take a look.

 

[Lou98GSX]

your car is a gs which has the chrysler motor right .

 

[Scraggybeard]

GST, 4g63 turbo engine.

 

[Lou98GSX]

i would go over all your connections and make sure no wires got pinched .

 

[Scraggybeard]

One other thing that I noticed before replacing the head gasket was that there appeared to be arcing at the coil pack from the #1 cylinder wire, though everything seemed to be running fine. Is it possible that this arcing fried the coil pack?

 

[Lou98GSX]

arcing could be caused by a crack in the coil or a bad ignition wire .

 

[Scraggybeard]

Checked resistance at the coil pack, seondary at the terminals showed 12.4 (spec is 11.3-15.3) but primary coil resistance at the connector showed 1.1 (spec is 0.7-0.86). Would this be enough to be causing lack of spark? What could have caused this increased resistance?

 

[Rock2610d]

I tested my coils and got 1.4 ohms.

Car still starts and runs but I am replacing coils.

Yours could have other issues though. I would think a ground check of the ignition
Transistor would be in order. While your at it check the transistor for function.

I believe, someone correct me if I am wrong,the ignition transistor gets its ground from the bolts and connections to the intake manifold. So if the ITransformer is not secured to IM well you could have a grounding issue. In addition the IM needs to be grounded for the ignition transformer to get a ground and function properly.

 

[Scraggybeard]

Following the "Diagnose a no-start" thread, I went to check my power transistor with a GE2524 multimeter. I used the method in the Chilton manual that says to connect a battery and test for continuity. When I tested cylinders 1 and 4 (battery negative connected to terminal 3, positive connected to 6, multimeter negative connected to 7, positive connected to 3) I got a reading of -350 with the battery positive connected and a reading of 550 with the battery positive not connected. For cylinders 2 and 3, I got similar results (connections were changed based on Chilton). I'll admit I'm an extreme novice when it comes to electricity testing, but those don't seem to be readings I was expecting. Can anyone help me interpret the results or let me know if I screwed something up doing the testing? Thanks.

 

[iPyromaniacC42]

did you check your ignition control module (ICM) right next to your coil pack?

 

[My1GLaser]

I took the wires 1 by 1 and connected to an external spark plug to check for spark, no spark out of any of the 4 wires.

If the external spark plug wasn't grounded then the plug won't spark. You need to connect a jumper wire from the grounding strap to a good chassis ground somewhere on the head. You could be mis-diagnosing the problem with that test you performed...

 

[Rock2610d]

Following the "Diagnose a no-start" thread, I went to check my power transistor with a GE2524 multimeter. I used the method in the Chilton manual that says to connect a battery and test for continuity. When I tested cylinders 1 and 4 (battery negative connected to terminal 3, positive connected to 6, multimeter negative connected to 7, positive connected to 3) I got a reading of -350 with the battery positive connected and a reading of 550 with the battery positive not connected. For cylinders 2 and 3, I got similar results (connections were changed based on Chilton). I'll admit I'm an extreme novice when it comes to electricity testing, but those don't seem to be readings I was expecting. Can anyone help me interpret the results or let me know if I screwed something up doing the testing? Thanks.

THANKS TO luv2rallye
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-electrical-wiring/229419-how-test-power-transistors.html

On a 2g turbo (Note: 2g NT doesn’t have power transistors):
Unplug the power transistor 8 pin connector.

To test the power transistor for cylinders 1 & 4:
Connect the negative side of a 1.5V battery to pin 3 (black wire) of the connector. Connect the negative side of a 12V battery also to pin 3. Connect the 12V battery positive to one side of a 12V light bulb. Connect the other side of the 12V light bulb to pin 8 (black/white). The light should not be on. Now connect the 1.5V battery positive to pin 7 (black/blue). The light should go on.

To test the power transistor for cylinders 2 & 3:
Connect the negative side of a 1.5V battery to pin 3 (black wire) of the connector. Connect the negative side of a 12V battery also to pin 3. Connect the 12V battery positive to one side of a 12V light bulb. Connect the other side of the 12V light bulb to pin 1 (blue/black). The light should not be on. Now connect the 1.5V battery positive to pin 2 (brown/red). The light should go on.