ALFAGTV6.COM

Still won't start. Gas tank is clean. New Fuel. Fuel Pump does its job. Fuel filter is new. Fuel is pumped to the engine. Fuel is present at the cold start valve. Installed new spark plugs. Spark plugs have a nice coating of gasoline now after repeated attempted starts... so fuel is making it into the engine. As far as spark... the Dist Ign Pickup, Rotor, Cap, Coil, Spark Plugs are new. Cold Start Valve, Aux Air Valve, and the Thermal Time Switch were also replaced. Checked all my fuses and they are fine. Spark is present, but seems a bit "whimpy". Could poor spark be causing all of this? Spark seems weak at the spark plugs (visually), so I suspected my spark plug wires. They are not new, but appear ok. Pulled the coil to distributor line and spark appears weak there too... so issue is probably not the spark plug wires. Battery is fully charged, so what is retarding my spark so far that I get no ignition? Fuel and spark are present, but not even a whimper of ignition occurs.

May seem silly at this point but...check that the primary wires to the coil(blade type). See that they "grab" properly. As these cars get older the female side of the blade connections get loose and need a little tightening up sometimes.

I have been doing unrelated work under the hood and knocked these wires out of place before, and then couldn't start it.

hth,
Scott

Nope, blade wire connections are clean and solid. Still no start. It sounds like I'm having a problem similar to Paul Bird's GTV6 in another thread in this forum. I've got spark and I've got fuel. What controls the strength of the spark in an '84 GTV6? Doea the ballast below the coil have anything to do with it? What could be retarding the spark on a parked car with the ambient temp in the low 80's? Either the fuel in my lines is old and won't detonate, or the spark is too weak to ignite it... or a curse has been cast on the car and I'll need to find an Exorcist.

I'm at my limit now....

Can you check the timing while you have someone else crank it over?

hth
scott

GregTX wrote:Nope, blade wire connections are clean and solid. Still no start. It sounds like I'm having a problem similar to Paul Bird's GTV6 in another thread in this forum. I've got spark and I've got fuel. What controls the strength of the spark in an '84 GTV6? Doea the ballast below the coil have anything to do with it? What could be retarding the spark on a parked car with the ambient temp in the low 80's? Either the fuel in my lines is old and won't detonate, or the spark is too weak to ignite it... or a curse has been cast on the car and I'll need to find an Exorcist.

Hi

Can you let me know when you track down an Exorcist same problems here.

Rodger

This does sound like a spark issue. I would check for consistency of the spark by watching a timing light flash as the engine is cranked over (in other words make sure the timing light flashes in a very steady pulse). The ignition ECUs in the 1984-1986 cars (and probably others) have a failure mode where they will deliver a weak and inconsistent spark and strangely, only at low temperatures. The only fix I know if when this happens is to replace the ignition ECU which is under the dash.

If the spark is consistent but weak and all the connections are good, it's time to start replacing parts, the coil is a likely candidate.

For what it's worth, I have a customer with numerous good ignition parts he has for sale on my site. They all work perfectly and I removed them from the car myself when I converted it to SDS.

Greg Gordon,
www.hiperformancestore.com