Cranks well no start

[rbrown]

Well it took 2 days and I have a problem. Ran fine yesterday after cleaning the engine. Although the ignition was on for about 6 hours without hte car running. (Wife turned off but it was not fully off and she pulled the key)

Cranks, has fuel, no spark. Has power at the coil.

How do I test the coil?
Could it be the distributor not sending a signal to fire?

How to check these?

If there was one close around here I could test the coil on another but there just isn't many Festivas around here.

[mattswabb]

I assume its the 91 in your signature? Knowing if its FI or carbed will greatly help those with the solutions.

Check your fusible links on the drivers side shock tower. Pull the dist cap an make sure its not corroded and is dry.

[WmWatt]

Suggest wiping distributor cap and ignition wires with a dry cloth. If that doesnt' work I'd go a bit further and wipe off the inside of the cap and the coil.

[rbrown]

Yes 91 FI.

Cleaned out the inside of the cap. Had no effect. The cap and rotor had a little corrosion but in my opinion, not too bad. However these little cars might be more picky than I am used to.

I saw what I thought were fusible links on the shock tower. The loop looking wires?

Like I mentioned it is getting power to the coil but no spark out.

[mattswabb]

Sand the terminals inside the cap and sand the end of the rotor. Festivas are finicky when it comes to spark. Moisture, corrosion and old wires will cause a no start.

If you ever replace the fusible links use the cartridge type. Do a search here and see what amps to buy. It's not what is printed on the side of the fusible link holder.

[rbrown]

Ok I see that these are the fusible links.

head
main
egi

inside they look like they are a bit corroded. The water yesterday could have amplified that.

[rbrown]

update.

Fuse links didn't do it.
Still no secondary spark.

Could I have burned something out by leaving it in ACC for about 6 - 8 hours? (Wife actually)

I've sprayed every connector I can find with contact cleaner, changed the fuse links 20a 30a 20a, changed coil wire, by-passed the clutch switch, taken distributor top section completely aprt to clean and dry out, cleaned all the post IN the cap, cleaned the rotor, even hooked up a thick film coil from my F350.

I guess I need to go look for some spare parts at the JY. What swap years should I look for?

[rbrown]

I'll update both threads on my solution.



Time. I think. Could be something I missed is intermittent. Relay or something.

Jump in this morning, after all I did yesterday and all the heat and sun drying and it fires up first turn of the key.

[WmWatt]

Do not sand the contacts inside the distributor. They are coated with platinum which will come off and ruin the cap. Done that. I'm of an age where we used to clean the brass contacts with sandpaper. No more.

I was thinking since you cleaned the engine, dirt or fluid got on some ignition parts.
Hope it's something simple like that.

[miami man]

a couple of times my coil wire tower on the distributer cap was badly corroded and one time i had to get a pair of needle nose plyers to remove the the brass from the center terminal that on the end of the coil wire.