New Festiva Owner With NO Spark

[Bobbyh68]

Do you get a spark from the wire going into the distributor? I thought the distributor is what creates the spark. Someone please enlighten me. I'd've pulled the wire off the #1 spark plug and used that to check for spark. Silly me?

I'm getting 12v power going into the coil, using a little test light. But nothing coming out of coil, using a wire and sparkplug to chassie test.
I guess I need to swap computers from my donor car (best $200 investment ever). lol

[rickbz28]

I may be a new member here but have owned Festivas and Aspires for over 15 years.Currently own 3 Aspires and 1 Festiva.By the way the Festiva has over 600,000 miles and have owned it since 2000 when it had just over 100,000.1 Aspire has over 350,000.You can see pic at Fordaspire.com in the intro forum.

[Movin]

I may be a new member here but have owned Festivas and Aspires for over 15 years.Currently own 3 Aspires and 1 Festiva.By the way the Festiva has over 600,000 miles and have owned it since 2000 when it had just over 100,000.1 Aspire has over 350,000.You can see pic at Fordaspire.com in the intro forum.

I could tell even in your first post you knew your way around under a hood!
Glad you found us!

On the no spark the wires in question would be yellow with green stripe and
blue with an orange stripe that if grounded anywhere will ground the coil.
Unplug the ignition module and see if there is power at the rpm test
connector with the key on.

[KJ4YXY]

If it isnt getting spark make sure you check the park plug wire orders - on a 4 cylinder it is 1342 I think (in the distributer) and 1234 on the engine.
It might be a simple electric problem, check out my thread (still in progress):http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=43041

[FestYboy]

I'm getting 12v power going into the coil, using a little test light. But nothing coming out of coil, using a wire and sparkplug to chassie test.
I guess I need to swap computers from my donor car (best $200 investment ever). lol

computer doesn't control spark, it controls the timing of the spark, but in order to do that it needs a signal from the distributor (pickup coil). check for 12v with a DVOM and the key on at both sides of the ign coil harness connector while pluged in (you need to backprobe the connector to do this). you should see 12v on both wires with the engine NOT running, if you don't, you have a bad primary coil winding. if you DO see 12v on both wires, move onto the secondary winding via a continuity test/ohms test from the positive wire of the coil to the tower connection. if you get SOMETHING, chances are the coil is good and you need to momve on, if you get "0" or OL from the meter, the secondary winding is bad and the coil needs replacing. to check your pickup coil in the dizzy, you'll need your test light again, but should be very shure that the IGN module is good before doing this. with the test light connected to a 12v source, backprobe the ground side of the IGN coil (yellow wire?) and crank the engine... the test light should blink at you. if it doesn't the pickup is bad and needs replaced.

[drddan]

It seems that 90 % of the time, when a Festy has no spark, and voltage going into the coil, it is the pickup coil inside the disty.

Just sayin' ....

Have you tried swapping one of the Aspire disty's into the festy to see if it runs then?

[Bobbyh68]

It seems that 90 % of the time, when a Festy has no spark, and voltage going into the coil, it is the pickup coil inside the disty.

Just sayin' ....

Have you tried swapping one of the Aspire disty's into the festy to see if it runs then?

I have a 91 Festiva parts car that I used to swap distributors. Don't think I have 2 Dead distributors??? But strainger things have happened.

[Bobbyh68]

computer doesn't control spark, it controls the timing of the spark, but in order to do that it needs a signal from the distributor (pickup coil). check for 12v with a DVOM and the key on at both sides of the ign coil harness connector while pluged in (you need to backprobe the connector to do this). you should see 12v on both wires with the engine NOT running, if you don't, you have a bad primary coil winding. if you DO see 12v on both wires, move onto the secondary winding via a continuity test/ohms test from the positive wire of the coil to the tower connection. if you get SOMETHING, chances are the coil is good and you need to momve on, if you get "0" or OL from the meter, the secondary winding is bad and the coil needs replacing. to check your pickup coil in the dizzy, you'll need your test light again, but should be very shure that the IGN module is good before doing this. with the test light connected to a 12v source, backprobe the ground side of the IGN coil (yellow wire?) and crank the engine... the test light should blink at you. if it doesn't the pickup is bad and needs replaced.

Festy Boy, tried your tests as discribed above. And on the Distribitor there is 12v but when I crank the car I get NO blinking on my probe light. So I have a BAD disty? Please help, I have been workn on this car on and off for a couple weeks now.

[georgeb]

Festy Boy, tried your tests as discribed above. And on the Distribitor there is 12v but when I crank the car I get NO blinking on my probe light. So I have a BAD disty? Please help, I have been workn on this car on and off for a couple weeks now.

More OFF then on!

[FestYboy]

it appears that you have a bad pickup coil OR ignition modual. check the pickup windings for continuity. if you have continuity, the modual is bad, if you DON'T have continuity, your pickup is bad. replace the nessisary parts and re-test the system.

[Bobbyh68]

My buddy has a couple of running Festiva's. He is helping me swap parts to test them on his car.
This weekend we will swap the Distributor (pick-up Coil).
We Already swapped the Ignition modual and had autozone test. Its good!
I also swapped the Coil on the fender, is also good.
And tried Yelling At The Festiva, and Nothing. Still don't start.
I hope this works, Im ready to start driving my new Festy.