Not So Merry Christmas for my LWB...

[hamrendan]

Hello all!.. Its been a crazy 6 months being out of work, and still moving into my new home. I went to the bay area last week for 4 days came back and my LWB wouldn't start..It had been raining alot up here and i figured it may be ignition related.. The interior fealt very humid, and the engine compartment seemed wet as well....Ok so lets blow out the little electronic gizmo on the side of the distributor.. nuthin.. ok check for spark...yeah it sparks, but not with any authority..plugs smell like gas.. ok lets do the Dizzy cap and rotor, and throw in a new coil to boot,.. Nuthing... it sputters a little like it wants to start ( starter is cranking fine).... ok well here are some nice new Bosch platinum plugs.. lets see... pulled the old ones out and they all smelled like gas.. new ones in.. NUTHIN!! not even sputtering now.. Dang... Ok things I have also ruled out..Fuel filter.. replaced a week ago it drove fine for 200 miles. Fuel pump was done 2 years ago.. i doubt thats it, plus i could feintly hear it going, and it has not been noisy.. Looked at the codes.. they are blank... so thats where I am at.. The only thing I can think of is the ECU.. PS the patient is a 1993 LWB with 165K miles ( maybe more with the big tires )
Any help is appreciated...
Thanks in advance...

[Funrover]

MAF? or Crank/cam sensor? those are my guesses...

[Roverdude]

Try unplugged the engine temp sensor (just to the left of the distro). If the sensor is bad, the computer may not allow the engine to start.

[TerryS]

Originally Posted by Funrover

MAF? or Crank/cam sensor? those are my guesses...

It should still start with a bad air flow sensor. There is no crank position sensor on a classic, only on Gems and later, nor is there a cam sensor.

If the plugs smell wet, it's getting an injector pulse, so the ecu is working, but it could be an overly long pulse from a bad fuel temp sensor. A weak spark on a plug out of the cylinder usually equates to no spark under compression. Remember that on a lucas EFI controlled car, the ecu doesn't control the spark. If you have voltage to the coil, a good coil, a good ign amp and pickup you will have spark.Timing is only controlled byt he distributor position, advance weights and vacuum advance unit. The ECU is only looking for input infor from the airflow sensor, the engine temp sensor, the fuel temp sensor and the 0xygen sensors.

[lonestarrover]

Check the air gap in the dizzy, if it is to closed it will have a very hard time starting. With age the screws get loose causing the air gap to get out of adjustment. To adjust you need a non ferrous-feeler gauge, adjust gap between reluctor or star to 0.20-0.35mm and pickup.

Also, check your wires to the coil, could be corroded ground, etc.

[OkieRover]

Have you never relocated the ignition module?
I thought you had.

Wet?
Did you pull the dizzy off?
Is it wet in there?

I love these kind of problems....(that's a lie by the way).

[hamrendan]

I replaced the ignition amplifyer module to no avail.. I remembered that the engine was stubling a little before I put in the new plugs...then after the plugs I got nothing at all.. so I replaced the ignition amp and still have nothing.. I have heard that some people have had issues with Bosch plugs and V-8's so I figured Ill get a set of NKG's and maybe that will fix it.. well it has not...

Ok I have replaced the Coil, Cap, Rotor, Ignition Amp.. The only thing I can think of is Possibly the cap and rotor got messed up when i originally put it on backwards (the cap pick ups did get a little scraped up but nothing so bad).. So I am going to swap it out with the old one to see if thats it.. Yes I have made sure that the wires are all correctly going to the right ... I am kinda at my wits end... BUMMER!!

[OkieRover]

Fuses?
When I had this problem earlier I had a blown fuse.
Maybe C3 or C4. I was shocked to find it popped.

[hamrendan]

checked the fuses... changed the wires... I guess all that is left is to check my work.. and maybe swap out the dizzy

[Kevin88RRC]

Did you check the Temp sender to the ECU???
Mine went bad and did not throw the EFI light.

[tlry00]

I had the same problems, and replaced everything... Finally what fixed the problems was replacing the alternator
I even had it load tested and it passed

Check your battery too!

[DevynsDad]

Did you ever get your truck fixed? Mine is doing the same thing, and I'm not having much luck. So far all I've done is replaced the dizzy cap, plugs, wires, and fuel pump. It'll turn over, but won't catch. Quite annoying.

[grtdivide302]

my truck was doing the same thing.
turned out to be the distributor base plate.

al

[RageRover]

My RRC did the same thing, when I also stripped the spark plug hole, which was fixed. After replacing what appeared to be okay plugs that sparked barely, it started right up.

In your case, it gets fuel, one way or another. Is there a coolant temp. sensor? I've heard cases that if the coolant sensor is reading an unusually high voltage, the engine may not start at all. Then again, I don't know whether or not there is even a coolant temp. sensor on our vehicles, I'd imagine there would be one. Not sure how to test it though.

Should also try throwing a scanner on the LWB's computer, if you could. Other than that... Good luck buddy!

[hamrendan]

It ended up being the Ignition amplifyer... I had British Pacific over night me the part.. I put it in and found that the connector was wrong.. I called them up and asked about this, they said to me.. OHH you need that $45 dollar connector.. WTF?? Why didn't you tell me this when I bought the freaking amp in the first place... Uhhh I dunno why.. Ok I need that.. So $45 and another $32 in shipping ( interesting that a small wire harness cost more than the ignition amp to ship.. Hmmmmm.. Grumble...) As for the cost of 2 wires spliced into 2 connectors.. the lable explained it all " Genuine Land Robber" anyway.. once I had checked everything .. got it running took it for a test ride around the block, I decided to take it to the store.. well it stopped on me... just died.. frustrated I called my wife for a tow back to take a look.. If I had not lost my head I could have seen that the $45 connector had loosened itself... a little squeeze of the female end of the connector with the plyers, some dialectric grease, and a zip tie for good measure had me back on the road..... for at least a few more days...

The next problem... I was pulling out of the parking spot at the golf course, and I could not for the life of me get the car out of reverse...I thought it may be the lock so I stupidly turned the car off to try and fix it.. Not realizing that when its in reverse it will NOT start again.. Duhhhh... So here I am in the middle of the lot blocking the lane.. frustrated.. hitting the gear selector a few times.. ok banging pretty hard...but just not hard enough to break anything... Push it back into the parking spot.. its a warm day.. I am sweating... frustrated.. pull the cap off the gear selector to see that the retaining C clip is missing... ok mess with it a little .. good its back into park... Managed to get it out of there and on the road, but now...and here is the killer.. when I slide it into park the return spring does not bring it back down low enough to release the key switch... so evey time I park it and go out of the car I have to push down on the connecting rod that goes down the gear selector knob.. what a PITA!! I took most of it apart, sprayed WD 40 down in there and all around... It is still sticky and wont return... I put it back together hoping that it just needs time to seep in there.. alas.. nothing...

Tune in next week for..... "something else..."