89 EFI auto no spark

[lncrice]

Hello everyone.....Great info on this site, love reading the posts. But now I need some help. I have a 1989 EFI Festy Auto, Air with 66k. It was bought from the original owner who was a little old lady.......Literally, she could no longer drive and had to turn her license in. I have owned just over 2 years and put on 4k miles. It is a car that is kept at a 2nd home and gets used at least once a month, so the mileage will be minimal. The car was well maintained. This last weekend I drove it to a store left it running 30 seconds came out and it was not running, I thought it just stalled. I went to start it and it cranked but no start. Checked coil, no spark from coil. Tested the 2 wires going to the coil, 1 was hot all the time the 2nd pulsated, so I'm thinking the coil is bad. I checked the coil as per you tube videos and I got 2.6 ohms on primary and 0 reading on secondary, hoping I did it right. Now here is my big dilemma........Going with that the coil is bad I have not been able to find a replacement anywhere, it is a discontinued item......EBAY, Google, and hours of phone calls trying to find one got me NA-DA. It is not the round cylinder type which I think is for carb. systems, it is a electronic type. Is there any other coil that will work with EFI? I'm afraid to try a different coil and cause some other electronic part to go kaput, and then I'm Chasing my tail looking for another self inflicting problem. I'm hoping that maybe someone else may have had this problem and came up with or found a solution to this discontinued part problem, or maybe there is a conversion that can be done. I plan on keeping the car a long time and pass it on to one of my kids or grandkids...... Any help or ideas will be greatly appreciated............

[FestYboy]

Happened to me. I was able to use a left over pigtail from another job and modified it to connect to the factory harness and then a canister style coil. I used an Accel Super Coil.

[lncrice]

Thanks for your reply.............So I can take the 2 wires....the consent hot one and put it on the pos. side of a canister coil and the pulsating wire on the neg. side like the old point setup and it will work? If that is what you mean did you use any kind of resistor? It seems like that would work but, I was afraid to try anything and damage some other electrical component.

[FestYboy]

Just like that, no resistor. Me being me, I would try not to change the factory harness in case you want a factory coil in place in the future.

[lncrice]

Hey.........Thanks for the info. I have lost a lot of hair trying to find a coil, and I don't have much to begin with. I'm not going to cut the harness, I will just pigtail 2 wires from the factory wires and run them to a new coil and have the benefit of them both. I'll get the parts needed but it will be a few weeks before I get back to the house to install them on the car. I will let you know the out come in a few weeks................Thanks again

[rap]

This may sound insane, but check your date of manufacture on the drivers door sticker. Ford/Mazda switched to all EFI in 1990 and may have begun using 1990 parts on later 1989s early if they ran out or low on parts for the original 89s.

[FestYboy]

Fortunately for him, all the EFI coils are the same no matter what the year. But I've found the Accel unit to be superior to the factory one anyway so it's a cheap and easy to find upgrade.

[jawja jim]

The 89 auto coil is a unicorn, too( check prices on Rockauto if you disagree). But mine is running on a later model coil and has been for over a year. I did splice in the correct connector from an old harness I had. And it had the most rigged up connection and a Nissan coil when I got it, and was running good, but I changed it out while chasing a "no crank" problem, which ended up being a broken wire in the harness where it plugged into the distributor's connector.

[FestYboy]

If that's the case, that 89 coil has to be common to another model. It doesn't make sense to have a bespoke part for one year on one of the cheapest cars in the line.

[jawja jim]

I agree it makes little sense, but when I was trying to decide whether or not to use the late model one, I was comparing specs on AZ's site. The Nissan( which I knew had been working) and late model Festy were only 100 ohms difference (12000 vs. 12,100 secondary resistance) whereas the 89 auto showed a wide range like 9-12K. I reasoned that being that close on the top end of the spectrum meant it couldn't be so critical. And the cost was so different. On RA it was $150 vs. $20, AZ $200 vs. $75, so I went ahead and used what I had on hand (being a cheapskate, too). I have since acquired an OEM for the shelf and can assure you it looks quite different, having a bracket made on it which fits the same mounting studs as the carby coil.

[lncrice]

Ok.......Here is the latest update. I installed a super stock coil, It started right up. shut it off and restarted a few times. I even let it run for a few minutes, goosed the gas a few times with no problems. The car than sat for about 4 hours, I restarted it put it in gear and made it to the end of the driveway and it stalled, approx.: 100 ft. I checked for spark and there is no spark again out of the coil..... Here is what I did with a test light while cranking.............Continuous power to the pos. side of the coil. Test neg. side it seems that there is continuous power I didn't seem to notice any pulsating. I also put the test light across the pos. and neg. terminals of the coil (clip on neg. test light point on pos.) and cranked it over and no light either continuous or pulsating.......I have been trying to do some research and I can't seem to find the answers. Does a 1989 EFI have a crankshaft position sensor? If so where would it be? I think only 1990 and newer have one but not sure. Also where would the ignition control modular be? I'm thinking that if I have no pulsating across he pos./neg. terminals while cranking that might need replacement. Any help will be greatly appreciated..........If there is any other parts that I should take a look at I'm open to try..........I will be making a trip up to where the car is over 4th of July weekend and any parts needed for this car has to be ordered and take a few days to get in..........Thanks in advance

[jawja jim]

Too bad you aren't closer. I have a leaky, but running distributor for that 89 EFI that a swap might tell if it's the ICM (internal in the dist). That being one of the unicorn parts, and can come and go, heating up and cooling down. I had a similar situation that turned out to be a broken wire in the harness just before the plug to the dist.

[Eaglefreek]

Have you checked your main fusible link. This morning I had a no start issue. I drove to Fastenal, went in, came out and it would crank but wouldn't start. I pulled the fusible links to check continuity and they were good. However, there was corrosion on the terminals. After reinstalling the fusible links, it started right up. You may have enough voltage to light up the test light, but not enough current to run the coil.

[lncrice]

Thanks for the offer........it would have been nice to switch out the distributor and if it ran try it for a few days......If the fusible link is the block on the d/s shock tower with the 3 looped wires, I checked the connections and they were clean. I have not checked the voltage at the coil terminals, but the test light was very bright. I know that is not saying much but I did feel it was a strong bright light. I have checked with Auto Zone and they are showing the same part # for a distributor for a 1989 Carb. and EFI distributor. I was thinking of replacing the distributor at this point to hopefully fix it but also to eliminate it. I would have thought that there was a difference between a carb. and EFI distributor as the EFI one needs to send a pulse to the injector system............any thoughts or ideas?........Thanks again for the replys.

[bugbor]

The '89 EFI (auto trans California only car, I believe) has the ignition module in the distributor. Can't remember the part number but it's used in a few other Japanese vehicles. I think it's usually a work/not work problem, but maybe yours is one that is intermittent. If you can find one that fits from another make/model in JY it'll be a WHOLE bunch cheaper than new.
If I'm wrong, somebody here'll be happy to set us straight, I'm sure.