No spark from my coil

[Mscromer]

86 turbo engine rebuilt by Lindsey Racing. New kroon wire harness. New coil. New speed a ref sensors. Focus 9 DME. Focus 9 DME relay. In short everything is brand new. Went to start for the first time and nothing. No spark from coil. I have 12 volts on both sides of coil with ignition on. Hooked up 12 volt bulb to see if it would flash with the pulse to the negative side and nothing. Both speed and ref sensors ring out good. I know the gaps are good. I also get tach bounce when trying to start. I’ve done all that I can in all my research I’ve done. Anyone got any suggestions ya on what to try or check next.

[Tom]

86 turbo engine rebuilt by Lindsey Racing. New kroon wire harness. New coil. New speed a ref sensors. Focus 9 DME. Focus 9 DME relay. In short everything is brand new. Went to start for the first time and nothing. No spark from coil. I have 12 volts on both sides of coil with ignition on. Hooked up 12 volt bulb to see if it would flash with the pulse to the negative side and nothing. Both speed and ref sensors ring out good. I know the gaps are good. I also get tach bounce when trying to start. I’ve done all that I can in all my research I’ve done. Anyone got any suggestions ya on what to try or check next.

With everything coming together at once, it could be anything -- something mis-wired or mis-configured -- even a lack of chip in the F9 DME.

Do you know if you are getting fuel to the rail and a pulse from the injectors?

Does the boost gauge go to 1 when you turn on the ignition?

Any alarm systems that might be in the way?

If you've triple checked all the new wiring, etc., you might try bypassing the KLR. Pull the KLR connector off, run a jumper between pins 9 and 16 in the KLR connector with a short wire and a couple of skinny spade connectors, and leave the connector off with that jumper in place. See if it starts that way, especially if you have a fuel pulse.

[Mscromer]

I knew having everything brand new could be a problem but I had no choice. I got the car for $1000 cause it had an engine fire. It only damaged wire harness and some plastic pieces. The new wire harness is all plugged in correctly. What do u mean by lack of chip in the DME. They used my original chip back in. I am getting fuel to the rail. Not sure about the boost gauge going to 1 I’ll check that later. There’s no alarm system. I tired by passing the KLR and that didn’t do anything. I haven’t check the fuel injector plugs yet going to get a Noid tomorrow. But I know I don’t have spark so I was concentrating on that first. I’m also contacting Focus 9 tomorrow to see if they check the DME after they do the upgrade

[Tom]

I knew having everything brand new could be a problem but I had no choice. I got the car for $1000 cause it had an engine fire. It only damaged wire harness and some plastic pieces. The new wire harness is all plugged in correctly. What do u mean by lack of chip in the DME. They used my original chip back in. I am getting fuel to the rail. Not sure about the boost gauge going to 1 I’ll check that later. There’s no alarm system. I tired by passing the KLR and that didn’t do anything. I haven’t check the fuel injector plugs yet going to get a Noid tomorrow. But I know I don’t have spark so I was concentrating on that first. I’m also contacting Focus 9 tomorrow to see if they check the DME after they do the upgrade

The focus 9 DME is all-new inside, FYI, so unless you got bad unit (which I've never heard of from F9) the DME probably isn't the issue. I'd just make sure the EPROM is installed properly and --if reusing your original(?)-- that is works. Chips can get damaged by static electricity when handled and moved around.

But, backing up a bit, given the engine fire, I'd start with the very basics. Is the DME getting power (i.,e., is this thing on)? You know the coil isn't firing. That could be an issue with the ignition system, or could be a sign the DME isn't doing anything. Checking to see if the boost gauge goes to 1 when you turn on the ignition is a rough test to see if the DME and KLR are getting power. The more complete test is to pull the connectors off the DME and KLR and confirm that you have power and ground to each when the iginition is on. Given the fire history, I'd do that -- and make sure to test all the power and ground pins in each. If no power, normally you'd look to things like the DME relay, alarms, ignition switches, etc., but in your case I'd look closely at and under the fuse/relay box for fire damage too.

If you have power to the DME, then I would start by seeing if you have and fuel pressure in the rail (I.e., is the pump running) and if the injectors are firing (pull a plug and look/smell for fuel squirting into the cylinder -- be careful). If you have neither fuel or spark, then that points to a DME/KLR that are flat lining (dead) for some reason -- perhaps melted wiring outside the Kroon harness in your case, or speed and ref sensors. On a new build, it could be less typical things like no pin on the flywheel for example (hey, it happens) so you'd just need to work systematically to make sure the DME is getting the signals it needs, and then able to deliver its outputs to things like the coil and injectors.

[dr bob]

I'd start with the really simple stuff. The coil works with always-voltage on one side, the other gets pulled towards ground by the ignition controller. When I see voltage on both sides of the coil primary, my first thought is that the controller isn't pulling low.

Options include a missed connection, poor connection, broken or damaged wire from the controller. Typically I start any diagnosis with whet I did since the last time it worked. In your case it's "everything". The fact that you see tach pulses and the fuel pump relay is closing, at least the sensor side is working.

Double-check continuity to the coil from the controller, with a meter from the DME harness connector. The Kroon harnesses are extremely reliable, but crazy stuff does happen especially at connectors. Look hard at the DME itself for easy stuff like a bent pin.

I keep a very old-skuul oscilloscope for certain diagnostics, and this would be a good case for pulling it out to watch the current flow through the coil primary.

[johnb]

The fact that you're getting tach bounce eliminates a lot of stuff. The signal that drives the tach (pin 21 of the DME harness) also drives the ignition signal to the KLR (should go to pin 9 of the KLR harness).

You know your DME is producing the DME signal so you can forget DME power, crank sensors, chip etc. Check for continuity between those pins on the DME and KLR harness. If you have it, then your KLR is getting the ignition input signal.

From there, the KLR outputs the signal on pin 16 and it goes to DME pin 32. Again you should have continuity there. Finally the DME outputs the actual coil driver signal from pin 1. So you should have continuity from DME harness pin 1 to the ground side of the coil.

If you have tach bounce and you're sure that you bypassed the KLR correctly, then one of these must not be connected, or the coil is bad.

[Latitude48]

If you've triple checked all the new wiring, etc., you might try bypassing the KLR. Pull the KLR connector off, run a jumper between pins 9 and 16 in the KLR connector with a short wire and a couple of skinny spade connectors, and leave the connector off with that jumper in place. See if it starts that way, especially if you have a fuel pulse.

With the F9T DME you can easily bypass the KLR by switching the DME to NA mode... for diagnostic purposes ONLY.

[danmartinic]

What brand of reference sensors?

[Tom]

What brand of reference sensors?

And there is the voice of experience!

[Mscromer]

What brand of reference sensors?

Hamburg Technic