Starting problems

[EVIL_Teken]

Been a very long time since I have been on this forum. Good to see a few Senior members still around and helping out.

Working on a 91 GS automatic, this vehicle has 281138 kms on the OD. This car had quite a few problems upon arrival and I have systematically repaired, replaced those components which were obvious problems.

PROBLEMS: poor idle, stalling, no start, no power, over heating, no HP, electrical drain, leaking oil, leaking coolant, buzzing noise upon blipping the throttle, squeeling brakes, shudder upon braking, thumping noise, vibration at speed, exhaust noise, etc.

• Over heating: Thermostat, can’t even begin to tell you how freaking long it took to break loose those fucking bolts to that T-sat.

• Vibration at speed: Found both front tires missing some balance weights on the inside of the rim. Both tires are also cupping due to improper camber, age, and lack of proper rotation. Will replace both sets of tires in the future.

• Squeeling brakes: Found both front and rear passenger brakes worn out.

• Leaking coolant: Hose coming off of the radiator cap was cracked.

• Shudder / Vibration upon braking: Both front rotors worn beyond service limits and are warped.

• Poor idle: Adjusted the throttle cable to spec, adjusted screw on top of the TB, reset the ECU, found a loose vacuum hose also. Alternator is also marginal causing poor idle when a load is placed upon it.

• Buzzing Noise: Replaced the entire distributor housing which included all the electrical components such as the igniter, coil, cap, rotor, etc because the bearing was shot.

• Exhaust noise: Haven’t repaired this item yet but on the surface it sounds like there is a worn / leaky gasket where the header and the test pipe meet from underneath the vehicle.

The vehicle was given a quick tune up which included a oil filter change, plugs, ignition wires, flush and fill coolant, flush & fill steering fluid, replaced ATF fluid from the entire torque converter and pan, carb cleaned the interior of the TB.

REMAINING PROBLEMS: This vehicle requires a new alternator & battery as it does not pass a load test either from basic accessories being turned on, or via a carbon pile load tester. I have a 165 hi out put alternator on order to replace this tired and aging 65 amp alternator.

• This vehicle has a very extensive alarm system which is 3 levels deep. One is all mechanical inhibitors, the next is from the alarm system, lastly in this province they must also have a recognized immobilizer using those stupid aszz transponder jelly beans.

This vehicle also has a car starter in place: This is where some of my problems are so I need some feed-back.

I believe that the ignition switch may be worn and just old and showing its age. The vehicle will not start with the key very often. Maybe once in a blue moon it will, but it will always start with the car starter.

So this rules out the starter and the solenoid as it always starts with the remote start, but never with the key?

Has anyone ever replaced the ignition switch / harness on this model vehicle and what was involved?

There was a link which I have read several times and also have referred to the Helms manual but would like some more insight.

Lastly, as per usual the main fuel relay has been replaced over the years with this vehicle and I will also verify all the voltage / resistance with the Helms manual to address any other problems which may be present.

I have never worked on Gen 2 with so many problems all at once . . . I am grateful that most of them are common problems and fixes are known.

Insight . . .

Teken . . .

[EVIL_Teken]

Update & Solution(s)

Found that the ignition switch was the cause for two major problems this vehicle was having.

• Could not start the vehicle using the key in the ignition: I removed the ignition switch assembly per the link and tip provided here by another member (Thank you Sir). Some things not covered and hope assists the next G2 member on this site.

Prior to removing the white ignition switch scribe and mark the casing against the mating surface of the ignition wiring harness. I did not do this and it caused me a few headaches as to the correct orientation upon install.

When UN-clipping the white portion of the ignition module carefully with drawl the casing noting which way up the inner assembly is facing. In my case the entire thing sprung out like a missile and I did not have a chance to see which way was the correct up / down of the armature.

Do not let the two ball bearings fly away, if you do you’re in for a entire new harness and will be stranded until you get one.

Because this casing had popped out so quickly I also did not get the chance to verify the placement and orientation of the inner spring which resides at the center of this device.

( The spring is wound in a specific way and also must be seated in the proper fashion. One part of this single wound spring is higher than the other. Once the spring is seated on the plate, ensure that the top wound spring is flush with the white plastic. This will allow you to wind the spring all the way to the other end so it can rest on the edge of the casing.)

Otherwise you will not be able to insert the key and turn the cylinder to all the positions of the module.

ie 0 I II III

Once the spring is properly seated in the white casing place the ignition armature back into place in the long groove there are 2 grooves in this fucken piece of plastic and if you don’t get the chance to verify where it sits.

You will be taking this thing apart 99999999999999 times, along with disconnecting your battery terminal 9999999999999999 along with it and its a huge PITA if the terminal is using those 3 style hex screws to hold the thing down.

Lots of wasted time if you don’t get it right, and for the sake of saying this . . .

You will smoke your car as if you install this thing upside down the and once you attach the negative battery terminal back on the vehicle will fire right up and continue to crank, and thus cause a fire!

Upon removal of this POS device it was noted that there was huge amounts of conductive grease all over the place. By default the factory has placed some of this chemical to reduce the amount of arc over that occurs during the turn over process.

What this ultimately also caused in my case is that the smudged amount of grease was creating a very small electrical path, which all this time has been draining 500 mA out of this vehicle and killing endless batteries!

ie. Within hours this car was completely dead . . .

The only saving grace was this car was equipped later with a Yellow Top Optima deep cycle battery which could take the endless cycles of draining with out killing the battery.

So in a nut shell if you have replaced all the typical things that cause a no start situation but hear the fuel pump operate, hear the MFR click, and all you see is the dash lights come on but there is no crank.

Take a serious look at the ignition switch!!!

Right now I have been able to turn this vehicle over 20 times with out missing a beat. Where as before I could not even get it to fire up just once!

This is a stop gap measure, and the harness will need to be replaced in the future for sure. But, right now she is out of cash and can’t spend anymore on this thing.

I hope this helps out the next guy on the forum . . . She has lived with this problem for almost 9 years and finally said Teken please fix this fucken thing . . .

Fixed!!! :excite: