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Can't Find Electrical Gremlin


bakerzxt

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i have an 83 turbo. the other day my car was having a problem starting but then i got it started and it was fine. then later that night i was leaving dinner and i could NOT get it to start. but it wasn't like the battery ws dead i had the interior lights and digital gauges on and then when i turned the key evry thing went black and it didnt even crank. after ten minutes and a call to a friend to come and give me a jump it suddenly turned over before my friend got their. then it was fine for a couple start ups for the rest of the night. then the next morning there was nothing so i just figured the battery was dead. i went and got a new battery a couple days later and i was hooking it up at night and i was rushing and not paying attention and i accidentally hooked it up backwards "i guess i cant read braille lol". it was only hooked up for two seconds but i still got the fusible link box to smoke. i hooked up battery right and there is no power to anything. i got a test light and tested the fusible links and only one was dead. then i was testing the fuse box and all of the fuses are fine but there is no power going to most of the fuses. the headlight fuses are the only ones that have power but the headlight do not turn on. also my ecu get really hot to touch when the battery is just connected. and when the battery was hooked up over night with no power on the new battery was dead in the morning and i tested the old battery and it was fine. so i relized i have a really bad short somewhere. and my question is how should i test each circuit to find out which one is bad.

 

thanks and sorry for the long post i just wanted to tell u all of the details to this problem.

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On the note of the reverse battery hookup, my father did that to my first Z while I was in basic training. He left it sitting in the driveway then decided to charge the battery and get it running right before I came home. The battery was so dead that it took the charge backwards. When he hooked it up it fried the fusible links. Guess I was lucky because it didn't damage anything. I took the battery into Advance, they didn't believe me until they put the battery on the test/charge machine and it told them the terminals were backwards. Reversed the cables and it checked out good. They gave me a free replacement even though the warranty was up just over 30 days. Replaced the fusible links and the car started right up and ran for another couple years with no problems.

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Sorry... I did not realize that this was english class and I had to make sure that every word I write is spelled out perfect and that capitalization is a very big deal in a quick post. I just never knew that people cared so much about grammer errors. I am just used to Microsoft Word where it just capitalizes everything that needs to be capitalized, so I will try and change my ways of typing to make you guys happy.

 

Anyway I changed out the one bad fusible link and now I have all of the power back in my car but it still starts and then just dies after a few seconds then I can not restart it. I most likely fried my ecu which I am looking for one right now so if anyone has one or knows where I can get one please let me know. Also is there a way to test most of the circuits just to make sure that there are no shorts in the wires because that is what the oringinal problem I was having. thanks

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Sorry... I did not realize that this was english class and I had to make sure that every word I write is spelled out perfect and that capitalization is a very big deal in a quick post. I just never knew that people cared so much about grammer errors. I am just used to Microsoft Word where it just capitalizes everything that needs to be capitalized, so I will try and change my ways of typing to make you guys happy.

 

 

This is a disciplined site. The discipline is there to keep order, in order to have the most productive and informative site on HybridZ's cars. Thanks for making us happy, if you desire to see it that way;).

 

Anyway I changed out the one bad fusible link and now I have all of the power back in my car but it still starts and then just dies after a few seconds then I can not restart it. I most likely fried my ecu which I am looking for one right now so if anyone has one or knows where I can get one please let me know. Also is there a way to test most of the circuits just to make sure that there are no shorts in the wires because that is what the original problem I was having. thanks

 

Great job on restarting it:)! I do have a hard time believing that the ecu may be toast, due to it firing. What is your fuel pressure?

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I do not know what my fuel pressure is because i do not have a fuel pressure gauge. Everytime the car has been sitting for a while and I try and start it, it starts but only for like 2 seconds and then it just cranks after that. I can smell fuel so I do not think that fuel pressure is the problem. I think the problem might be that the motor isn't getting enough air.

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Fuel pressure gauges are cheap, might get one for giggles and future trouble shooting. While you are there pick up some starting fuild.

 

Unless you have a blockage, your engine is getting air. Your fuel air ratio might be crud, (too much fuel), or your getting too much air. Pull plugs, check for fuel soaked. When plug is out check for spark.

 

Get back with us on this information from the basic testing.

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I do not know what my fuel pressure is because i do not have a fuel pressure gauge. Everytime the car has been sitting for a while and I try and start it, it starts but only for like 2 seconds and then it just cranks after that. I can smell fuel so I do not think that fuel pressure is the problem. I think the problem might be that the motor isn't getting enough air.

 

Sounds a lot like my last "killer" problem. Eventually it reached the point where it wouldn't start because the plugs were so fouled up. My solution involved the cylinder head temperature sensor: it was dirty, and thus not working at all correctly.

 

Buy/download an '83 FSM from somewhere (I suggest XenonS130.com) and get a cheap multimeter (Harbor Freight specials work fine), then go through the diagnostics in the EL and EF&EC sections of the manual. Get some electrical contact cleaner, dielectric grease, and fine sandpaper while you're at it: clean and grease anything you disconnect for a test.

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Ok well I got to do some more work on the car tonight. I tried to start it again and it started then died like it always does. Then I checked the distributor and a couple of the plug wires were loose so I put them on good and it ran for almost 20 seconds then died. So then I pulled the plugs and they were fuel soaked and I check underneath my car and there is a giant puddle of fuel that is dripping from my down pipe since it is open downpipe. So I distcontected power to the fuel pump after I waited for awhile and tried to start it since there was alot of fuel in the engine but still no success. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

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ok well today i started to work on my car again. i haven't felt like working on my car at all lately since 2 very close freinds of mine got into extremly bad car accident. i lost one and the other is in the hospital. well anyway i picked up some new plugs and i was just looking to disconnect the cold start injector until i remembered that turbos do not have one.

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Ok well I changed the plugs and cranked it with the fuel pump disconnected and I got it started and running really rough. I connected the fuel pump back and it ran ok but when I took it for a test drive the car a zero power, it did not want to move or rev high at all. I know it was running really lean so I have been upping the fuel pressure and it sound a little better. Next thingI am going to do is check my fuel filter.

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Cylinder Head Temp Sensor would be my first guess. As when they go bad it will just start making your car run really really rich. If you have a bad CHTS, but a good O2 sensor usually the O2 then can make up for the CHTS once warmed up. My car barely ran when cold with a bad CHTS.

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