Help! Engine cranks, plenty of spark, but the stupid thing just wont go. Its a 91 Fairlane. A few minor things that may have contributed (or not)- i opened up the hood, i noticed that my air conditioner belt had up and nicked off, and took my pulley with it, and i was none the wiser. Is it possible that this coming off may have damaged something? i looked down there and from the bottom, and it all seems fine.

Ive searched on here but cant find much similar to my problem, as ive checked what ppl have suggested. The fuel pump is fine, the filter isnt more than 2 months old, and its getting plenty of fuel pressure up near the rails, and the injectors also arent that old at all.

Question is, how hard is it to get at the crank angle sensor (whereever it is?) and also on this model, where is the diagnostics plug? a friend of the family has a unit to connect to test, but i couldnt find the plug. lol.

any help appreciated!

diagnostic plug is in the fuse panel from memory.. left top somewhere.. its a long plug..

i thought it was in the fuse panel too... but i cant see it, on, around or behind the fuse panel. and ive checked beside the ecu on the passenger side as well.

new symptom as well - the battery was dying, i thought it might of been just from having the doors open radio on etc and turning it over too many times, but i had it on the charger all night and day and when i disconnected it and tried to fire her up, battery is dead. Its less than 2 months old as well.

maybe this whole problem could be a shorting wire somewhere?

On a 91 its below the fuse panel. You'll have to get down low to see it. On the later ef el's its in the fuse panel its self.

Is your alternater belt still their?

Also your model has a distributer not a crank angle sensor. The ef and au have the crank angle sensor.

ohhh ok then. wondering why i couldnt see anything. the alternator belt is still there.

Is the fuel pump going?

Yeah i can hear the fuel pump going everytime i turn the ignition all the way on. So if the car doesnt have a crank angle sensor, could it just be the distributor with some wires loose etc? This problem is doing my head in

Technically speaking it would still have a sensor even with a distributor as well wouldnt it?

Anyone else have any thoughts? new update, its not the battery, the charger was stuffed... it seems to me like it might be the injectors just dont want to work, so im thinking a little sensor somewhere or just a bare wire? cant anyone help with suggestions/

The Dizzy contains the crank angle sensor as the hall sensor has one hall wider than the rest to send an extra long pulse to the ecu to determin where the crank angle is at.
Unfortunately i dont think the diagnostic unit is going to help u much as they only collect data while the engine is running on ur model ecu (eec4).
Later units can store fault codes from last run time.
The fastest and cheapest way to diagnose any efi problem is to simply get a doner car and start swapping things like the dizzy/ecu/map sensor/ignition and fuel solenoids (brown+green relays) and see what fires her up. Then when fault is found u can source a new part without paying for a mechanic to do it all for u.

thanks, that tell me heaps more. i dont really have all the tools i need here, but im dreading to ask, what sorta price range we looking at to pay someone to slam a second hand dizzy and map sensor if i source them myself?

Map sensor is a piece of cake man just one plug to the injector loom and a vacuum hose, dont even need to remove ur old one , just plug in and leave hanging to test if it works. No tools required.
The dizzy is harder but simple enough.

Very important!!! do not forget this step!!!
1\2" powerbar/ratchet, 3" extension and 24mm socket required,
Crank engine until TDC pot 1 (check timing marks on crank to get spot on). Do this by reaching down between the pulleys and the radiator and placing 24mm socket on the harmonic balancer bolt in the end of the crank, turn clockwise until TDC

remove dizzy cap but leave leads connected

disconnect plug from TFI module

mark which way rotor is pointing in relation to the dizzy( ie 1 o'clock or pointing at the dipstick or something) and do the same to the dizzy ( ie TFI module[grey rectangle thing on the side] pointing to power steering bolt) to keep alignment. the more accurate u can be here the easier it will be later on.

Take a centre punch or scribe tool and scratch a groove across the surface of the clamp down area at base of dizzy and the block to mark a timing degree in case u wish to replace ur old dizzy back u can align marks as it came out.

13mm/1\2" ring spanner required,
unbolt clampdown bracket and wiggle out old dizzy, take note that the rotor will turn about 20-30 degrees as it comes out, u will need to duplicate this in reverse to align rotor shaft when replacing dizzy.

wiggle in new dizzy in reverse proceedure making sure that end result is that all reference points line up as described above

Reconnect all items removed and replace dizzy cap.

Crank engine to see if it fires.

timing will need to be adjusted as described in ur manual to correct angle but should fire if it is within ball park.

Hope this helps u out, if not a mechanic should take around 20-30 minutes to fit the dizzy for u but probably charge u the hour anyway, and a callout fee if u use a mobile mechanic, around $80-$100 per hour, average $22 callout fee.