It has been a while since I've posted on the forum, largely because I've undertaken a turbo swap. I started last year, and things got put on hold during the winter. There have been stopping points along the way, but by and large, everything is done. The turbo engine and transmission are in place, fuel lines are hooked up, all of the physical stuff is done and set up. Even the wiring is done (mostly how outlined here), thanks to NismoPick.

What's the problem? I put the key in the ignition, and the starter motor clicks, but the engine doesn't start.

Here is what I've done so far: tested the starter motor at autozone (it is still good), tested for sufficient battery power (it is good); tried jumping starter (still just clicks); tightened down all of the appropriate electrical connections (no change); put a socket on the crank shaft pulley to make sure the engine still turns (it does). I am at a bit of a loss at this point!

Any help will be appreciated. If anybody wants, I can upload pictures of the different wiring connections tomorrow.

 

Do you have a multimeter? If so, pull the yellow starter lead and hook the multimeter leads between the wire and starter spade connector and check voltage upon starting (you will need the wife's help to turn the key).

If you don't have a multimeter, use a spare bulb from the donor car, run a wire to each side of the bulb and hook up to the starter like above.

I may have time this week to come down there again.

 

Did the tests, and here are the results.

When running the current wiring just through the harness, it reads about 8.8V when the ignition is turned.

When trying to jump it straight from the battery using the toggle switch setup, it reads about 11.5V.

The battery by itself reads about 12.8V. I had it tested at AutoZone, and they said the battery is at 100%.

When they tested the the starter, they said it pulled about 12.5V.

 

Update so far. got the starter working (I had some of the wiring backwards), but the engine still will not fire up. When I cranked it the first time, the engine turned, but didn't engage. The second time, and smoke started pouring out from the engine bay. Somehow, 12V are running through the ground wires on the harness. NismoPick and I pulled the entire EFI harness to look for loose wires and the like. We found one, but did didn't seem to related to the problem.

put the harness back in, but same result.

The next thing I will check is to make sure the spark plugs are getting spark.

 

Indeed.

It was the turbo EFI ground wire by the coil / AFM brackets that went up in smoke. I yanked the entire harness and filleted it open on the living room floor. In the end, the grounds are fine, but the EFI relay is dumping +12V onto the ground wires. I swapped relays and same result.

As crappy as it sounds, it might be easier to source an 82-83 turbo EFI harness and ecu. I believe it's still compatible with the 81T crank angle sensor.

 

If I'm already doing new wiring and a new harness, should I just jump to one of the megasquirt systems?

 

Ideally, yes. As long as your wife isn't going to murder you.

 

reading some of the megasquirt threads makes my head hurt. You saw first hand how inept I am with the electrical side of things; so I'm hesitant to try something as complex as the megasquirt. looks like I'd have to get the 82-83 distributor as well as a handful of new sensors and equipment. O.o

I guess I want to try and test possible before jumping into a $700-$1000 investment on the car.

 

I tried to see if it is getting spark. No spark. Tried bolting in the ecu, to see if it just needed a ground, still no difference. It is still running voltage through the grounds.

 

Did you hook up the black white stripe coil wire to +12v switched power?

 

Yessir, I did.