B2200 Crank No Start

Hello, New to the forum and looking for some advice! I'll try and make this short and sweet but I've got lots of details.

I put the faith in my B to drive me a couple hours out of my hometown to another city were I'm taking school and she has let me down! I've got some pretty basic tools with me, and my haynes book but no shop or major tools and I'm still getting friendly with the folks around here, so I don't have alot of string pulling resources. So I need a little bit of advice from some more seasoned folks. I'll try and be as detailed as possible.

So just the other week I was bombing around in my trusty fuel injected B, getting the mileage and cheap insurance I just love, Then it started to run kinda sluggish and sound like it wanted to stall out while idleing at lights and stop signs(ran fine on acceleration and at speed though) so not wanting to be stranded on the side of the road getting screwed by a tow truck , I limped over to my parking stall parked it, left it over night and went to scope it out the next morning, and she cranked like crazy, but wouldn't fire at all, not even a sputter.

So I've done as much diagnosis as I can, As much googling as one man can handle, and I think I've read my oh so helpful haynes manual about three times (the fuel injected models arent covered very well in my book). As far as diagnosis goes, I,'ve got no spark at the plugs, I've pulled the secondary off and had a stranger turn the key while I held it up against the manifold (could be a really crappy ground) but there was no spark at the distributor so I think I can rule that out. One of the two wires that goes to my coil (do they still call it a coil when it looks like a transformer instead of a capacitor?) has 12v but I read on another forum the the spark is set by interuption of ground from the computer?? I then pulled fuel line off (without pliers that was fun) and I've got no fuel pressure with the key in the on position, but I do have pressure while cranking (These trucks have electric fuel pumps?). When I turn the key to the on position I can hear what sounds like a relay click at the fuel tank but no humming (not that I ever noticed my fuel pump ever making any kind of noise before It sure never made no chevy fuel pump noise... thats for sure )

I read in another forum somewhere to pull the computer off, open it up and check for bleeding capacitors but mine looked good as new inside nothing looked burnt or out of the ordinary, So I have no reason to suspect it off the hop but cant rule it out entirely.

I also read that the ignition switches are quite a common failure, however I pulled my the plastic off of the column and it would appear that all contacts are getting 12v in one position or another (is there a specific contact I can test?). The indicator lights in my dash all come on and the heater fan will kick in in the on postion
aswell. (radio comes on too).

As I said the truck a 1992, Base base model lucky to have heat and wind down windows. Burns a bit of oil in cylinder no3 (plug gets a wee bit fouled after 10,000km, and maybe burns a liter of oil between 5000km oil changes) but still seemed to have a strong motor so I really don't care. Shes got 278,000km on her.. never touched the oxygen sensor or the catilytic converter (just swapped the wire so the light would go out). I bought it for $200 about two years ago with about 230,000km on it, and it needed a muffler and a back window. So its really not worth anything (shes a wee bit rusty) and therefore not worth too much in parts so if its too serious shes gunna get sold for beer cans!

Any advice, or tests I can do would be greatly appreciated. If I can get this beast back on the road it would sure be a bonus to me. I completely apologize for run on sentences.. I'm just a stupid carpenter.

Try cleaning the brush of the mass air flow sensor. With as many miles/km as you have, the contacts may have gotten flaky. Just passing along some information from the mechanic who used to work on fuel injected equivalent in the 626 line. You would probably do well to get the book for the 83-86 cars.

Your mistake was shutting the engine off. That probably put the last nail in the box. You can carefully remove the cover on the potentiometer and bend the brush to make a better contact. Worth a try.

If your manual has an electrical diagram, look at the schematic for the mass air flow sensor. Under certain conditions (deceleration) the spark plugs are shut off. Again, if the brush contact has gone flaky, it may be sending the wrong signal to the ECM.

Have you tried cranking the engine over with a wide open throttle? That may shut off the injectors. Try a 3/4. That will establish a higher than normal vacuum behind the air flap of the mass air flow sensor, pulling the brush into some better contact with the rest of the unit. Hope this helps.

Well congrats for doing as much research as you can! Most just log on and say help.

Sounds like you need to track down the reason you are not getting spark. I've talked to a few people lately that have had a bad main relay and it's caused all sorts of problems. So lets start there....well maybe one step back from there.

Here is a flow chart of sorts as to how the spark gets from the battery to the spark plugs.

Battery>Fuel Injection Fuse (under the hood fuse block)>Main Relay (tucked behind battery)>Distributor>Computer>Igniter Module>Coil (with help from condenser)>High Tension wire to Distributor>Distributor>Plug Wires>Spark Plugs.

Since your truck was running when the problem started, it's unlikely the "Fuel Injection" fuse is blown, but check it anyway.

Main Relay - Are you getting 12 volts on the downstream side of the relay?
Turn the key on and pull the connecter off of the distributor. If the relay is good, then you should have 12v or battery voltage on the black and yellow wire. If you have something significantly less than the battery voltage then that points to the contacts inside the relay being bad or dirty - they do get gooked up after 20+ years. Last month, a customer had 12 volts going in, but only 2 volts coming out of the main relay. You can also check the voltage at the Black/Yellow Stripe wire on the big green test connecter (the one equipped for 6 terminals but only using 3 wires) under the wiper motor.

So if you have 12 volts at those locations, then the distributor is getting ample power. Assuming the distributor (crank angle sensor inside it) is working, then the computer should be getting the signal it needs to fire the spark plugs and the injectors. More about the CAS in a few.

Computer
There is not a whole lot you can easily test at the computer. So since you've already inspected visually, move on to the Igniter.

Igniter
Since you have already tested that you are getting 12 volts to the coils, then you should be getting 12 volts to the igniter and condenser). These igniters do fail. But, it seems unlikely your truck would run fine, but only have problems at idle if the igniter was bad.

Coil
So you have 12 volts to the coil, but is the coil itself good? You can check the resistance of it. If you can get a multi meter on the connecters, you should have .81-.99 ohms (at 20 degrees C - may vary with different temps.) You should also have 6-30k ohms between the connecter on the left (firewall side) of the coil and the high tension output.

Condenser
It's not easily checked either. But, when they start going out, it usually causes a weak spark at high RPMs, not low RPM. So it's unlikely the problem.

High Tension Lead
The factory manual calls for 16k ohms per meter. You can do the math on that one. Got access to another car you might be able to borrow a lead from?

Distributor
Pull the cap and rotor and inspect if you haven't already.

Plug Wires
It's unlikely that all of them had gone bad at the same time.

Spark Plugs
Well, you aren't getting spark through the wires so the plugs are probably not the cause of your problem. But it wouldn't hurt to inspect them anyway.

As for your fuel pump concerns. The pump will not run for more than a second or two if the engine is not cranking. You probably wouldn't be able to hear it anyway. But, if you want to check that, then you can jumper the yellow test connecter near the wiper motor. When you do that, if you turn the key to "ON", then the pump should run. Go to the fuel filler door and listen for it through the filler neck.

You situation doesn't sound like the typical fuel starvation problem because it was running fine at high power / rpms. Since you mentioned your truck has a lot of rust, you should check all of the grounds as well as the battery terminals themselves. You have a main battery ground on the inside of the right fender. Another small ground connecter on the inside of the left fender, just behind the headlight. I'm guessing your 2.2 EFI is like the 2.6 EFI trucks and there is a ground between the intake manifold and the firewall or elsewhere. Stalling at idle but running fine at higher RMP sounds a little like a low voltage situation. And along the lines of a rusty truck, a lot of owners have had rust/corrions issues at the fuel pump wiring harness. So a weak connection there might be susceptible to low voltage. Also, check the connecters at the MAF (the housing just outside the air cleaner box). It is notorious for getting corrosion. You might even try cranking the engine with it disconnected. But even if it has issues, I doubt that would cause a no-spark situation.

Also, if you can get your hands on some noid lights, you can plug them into the injector harness and see if the injectors are getting signals to fire. Check #1 and #2. I'm not all that concerned that the injectors aren't firing. But, if you aren't getting spark to the plugs AND the injectors aren't firing, then that would point to the crank angle sensor in the distributor or the computer itself. Injectors and spark rely on the CAS.

That should keep you busy for a little while!

Did the timing belt break or skip?

The fuel pump on the 2.2 EFI trucks (and I assume 2.6 EFI), do not prime, they run as soon as the key is turned to start, and I think they keep running via a signal from the MAF sensor, which is not a flapper door setup like the earlier models. My bet would be on the crank angle sensor, its about the only sensor that will prevent spark, most ignition components start acting up when they get warm, then work fine when they cool off.