It finally happened...

[shadetree]

Yes the brass controller ! Junk it !!
15 hp ! On my way to advance parts now !!!!

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Man this engine swap is taking forever to get it right.

7 page thread on no spark issue...

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?52902-B6t-no-spark-at-the-coil&p=651676#post651676

So, today i spent 8 hours tearing into the wiring harness and redoing EVERYTHING.

It's still not back together but I'll get to it tomorrow.

The cause for all of this was that I found I have +.01-.03 volts of electricity ON the front of the block, across the exhaust manifold, on the valve cover, and the camshaft pulleys.

I was turning the engine to TDC and somehow my channel locks arced off the exhaust cam pulley and the bolt that holds it on?!?!!

I figured I would add a ground to the front of the head, still had voltage, so I figured i better make sure the ground connections are spotlessly clean. I googled and learned that manufacturers in modern cars are trying to ground everything to the negative battery terminal via the closest frame ground.. Which led me to stripping the capri harness back and rerouting/elongating the otherwise thermostat housing grounds over to the frame rail ground closest to the battery.

The second pic my index finger is on the grounds where i doubled them over and sent them back down the harness.

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This ground will be moved to the same spot.

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Over here.. I cleaned all the connections until they were shiny and used dielectric grease all over. Scratched the paint off the frame rail under the flat copper piece and chased the m6x1.00 bolt threads.
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That wasn't enough.. See all the crap in the corner on the strut tower... It looked worse in person. Had to go.

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So I rerouted all the junk wiring back out the strut tower hole behind the fender, tore back the stock harness to dig out the brake fluid level and wiper sockets that I needed to keep. Taped off the rest and grounded the icm and that other thing.. I don't know if I'll even need them hooked up yet but until It starts and runs I won't know.

I fed the capri engine harness through the firewall and made the coil connections better. Also re-ran and re-spliced the main harness power wire. I had to make the coil wires and the vaf plug wires alot longer but everything is either crimp connected or soldered in. Except the main power wire..

Far right is the only two sockets that made it back in the engine bay from the stock harness. This is before I extended the vaf and coil wires. I used OE wiring from a festiva start/charge harness I had laying around, all the wires are the same gauge if not the same color.
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Out of all the wires in the capri engine harness these ones in my hand are all that made it back into the engine bay. I kept the extra tach wire right on the edge of the hole behind the reservoir in case I need it.

I'll get better pics tomorrow of it finished, i call it a mini tuck. Definitely have a newfound respect for the florida guys doing full harness tucks. I might try it one day after I get this engine running but I already know it's gonna be fun. I think I can hide the other wires too, and the branches!

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For the coil jumper wires from stock to capri harness I just used the crimp ends i put on the other day. I put tape around the individual wires to keep spark from jumping between them, i dont think it was a problem but I'm tired of the 'good enough should work and it doesnt' crap.
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This is the only 'splice' I did, main power..

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Hard to believe that little bit of work took 8 hours but it did. I think it will be worth it to not have that corner cluttered up, assuming i can get the thing to run.....i have a whole extra harness, ecu and vaf are headed my way, my luck i'll have to take all this back outand replace the harness but I'm hopeful I can get it to run with this harness.....

[shorestiva]

.01-.03v is acceptable to me if it was .5 or higher id say you have ground problem. Id be looking more for power feeding from somewhere it shouldnt be. I txt you earlier today did you get it?

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There's some really awesome people on this site, Without you guys I never would have even thought to do any of this. I don't ever mean to come off like I'm complaining, sure it's a headache but I like messing around with it. I'd like it more if it would actually run lol..

I've already got plans in motion to take this car a little further but I need this engine to run before I can justify putting the parts and time into this particular festiva.



Shorestiva:
No i didnt! I actually did get readings spiking up to .08v but that was intermittent a d I couldn't get it to stick. I checked my aspire and it has Ov everywhere, the voltmeter actually read -0.00v down to -.05 on the aspire engine. Was kind of hoping I would run into a bare wire but the only one I found that MIGHT have been hot touching chassis was the old o2 sensor wire.

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I need to pull the harness back out of the firewall from the ecu too and check for any bared wires that might have got cut or scraped on installation too.. Just thought of that.

[shorestiva]

I'll txt you again tomorrow. I'm thinking feeding through a sensor or something electrical connected to the block.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C79lHxDz1E&feature=youtu.be

[Safety Guy]

Fiona Lives!!

Okay Matt, what was the problem? What got her started finally?

Karl

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Was a compound problem, I guess when I tucked the harness back into the fender I bent one of the pins in the main relay when i plugged it back in. That was done at the same time as I swapped out the ecu and vaf from mark. I plugged the old ecu in and it won't run on it, so originally it was a bad ecu.


I need to do some more small stuff to it. The driver side caliper is sticking really badly, and i either need to get coilovers or build some kind of coilover kit, i won't be able to have any decent tire in the rear until i get some clearance.

The engine is firm, rob was semi launching it in my driveway and i watched it for any rocking, the thing doesn't budge at all, i guess the window weld really really REALLY stiffens up the mounts.

I had the tires spinning in 1st 2nd and half of third, i cant wait to start driving it again!

[Safety Guy]

Yay!!

Karl

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You gotta take it for a spin sometime Karl, the turbo is really smooth. I didnt drive it much because the caliper is pretty bad off but it doesn't slam you, it's more of a constant pull shoving you backwards from the start all the way through the rpm range lol. I can't even hear the blow off valve noise associated with turbos which is kind of a disappointment but theres plenty if time for upgrades and whatnot. I figured the turbo would be a harsh ride once it hit 25-3000 but it's actually nice and smooth.

[Safety Guy]

Matt said:

"You gotta take it for a spin sometime Karl, the turbo is really smooth. I didnt drive it much because the caliper is pretty bad off but it doesn't slam you, it's more of a constant pull shoving you backwards from the start all the way through the rpm range lol. I can't even hear the blow off valve noise associated with turbos which is kind of a disappointment but theres plenty if time for upgrades and whatnot. I figured the turbo would be a harsh ride once it hit 25-3000 but it's actually nice and smooth."

Sounds great! Glad she's running finally.

Karl