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hey guys and gals. i have a 93 buick park ave will crank but no spark. i put a screwdriver in the spark plug wire and held it close to the coil post and no spark. i find it hard to believe all 3 coils went bad at once. also every so offten the car will start but most of the time it wont. the car was bought off a dui offender and had a blow and go (breathalyzer) insatlled. i just got the car tonight and did not get to look at the wiring under the dash yet. any ideas? thank you in advance.
john
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It seems like we’re on the path to replace that sensor. Honestly, I don’t think that’s a bad idea. Let us know how things go after the replacement.
i just got done with the crank shaft sensor and no go. still no spark. i am going to remove the coil packs and clean real good to make sure it getting a good ground. any other ideas? i really thought it would have worked. i am also thinking the harmonic balncer might not be on all the way. i got the bolt as tight as i can get it without the motor moving. i tried to wedge something in a different pully to help but the pully is still slipping the belt. would the harmonic balancer have to be dead on for it to work?
Man, I thought this was it 🙁 the fact that your engine is turning and even cranked the other day makes me lean away from a ground issue. If there is truly no spark from any coil, then it could be the ignition control module. It’s the part all three coils plug into. You can test it, but it might be just as easy to get one from a salvage yard at around 20 bucks..your call. Check your wiring from the crank sensor. Sometimes they degrade from oil over the years and the insulation fails thus making contact where they shouldn’t. I’ve had ignition control modules fail and produce no spark and a no crank scenario. Keep us posted…
ok i will get a used icm tomorrow and see where we end up. if the icm turns out to be a bust is there much more it could be?
At that point, I guess I would check my wiring again beginning at the crank sensor. Per AceofSpades video link, I’d check for appropriate circuits for signal, ground and power at the harness that feeds into the ICM. It might be something with the breathalyzer you mentioned, but that’s foreign to me. I’d check wires to make sure nothing is grounding out, where wire insulation might be missing, etc. You’ll get it…that crank was just the most likely culprit with symptoms described. Keep us posted.
I didn’t read your last post well…YES the crank pulley needs to be pulled in/ bottomed out all the way on the crank shaft. You need to get an assistant to put a pry bar in the teeth of the fly wheel so you can be sure to torque the crank bolt down to the proper specs without turning the engine. If it doesn’t bottom out for whatever reason, it may not let the sensor line up and read the metal reluctor ring on the engine facing side of the crank pulley. If the sensor has nothing to read, no signal equals no spark.
ok i am still working on getting this harmonic balance back on. i got a pry bar on the fly wheel to keep the motor from moving,also got my buddies electric impact gun and still wont go on. it only goes on like 1/4 of the way. i did read about the installer tool but the one i got from auto aone was the wrong one. (but they could order me one for $169.99) which sucks because i will only need this tool for this job. atleast i would hope. is there something im missing? i lined up the key. sould i use some greese? also i had this great idea well i thouht it was great. i was going to buy a bolt the same as the one for the harmonic balancer but longer and get a nut with some washers on it and see if that would work. please let me know if there is a easier way to do this. or should i try a different one from the junk yard. i did use a puller when i took it off so the shaft should be ok.
You shouldn’t have to use an installer tool. I never do personally. I’d pull the crank pulley off again and regroup. First, clean it inside really good with some brake clean and perhaps emory cloth. If you are able to clean up the end of the crankshaft a bit with a rag that might be good too. Yes, dry everything and use some grease. Make sure the woodruff key is perfectly aligned with the slot on the crank. You should be able to pull it down with the crank bolt. Honestly, I like to do this by hand. That way you can stay good and square and the crank bolt. (Use a 6 point socket by the way to prevent stripping the bolt). Make sure it’s not cross threaded and take it slow to prevent galling of the bolt? Also, you can generally produce more torque than a lot of impact guns by using those God given muscles. As it goes in slowly, you should be able to see and feel when the cranks pulley bottoms out and the bolt will become immobile. It doesn’t necessarily mean the crankshaft will then be perfectly even with the inside of the pulley. If none of that worked, I’d head to the salvage yard. Be sure it’s a GM pulley for that vintage of motor, because if not, the crank sensor won’t be able to read the reluctor ring.
when you put on the harmonic balancer on as tomatofarmer has already stated make sure the crank is clean your kea way is lined nicely, just carefully look everything over and line everything up really nice before attempting to put it on.
what kind of impact gun are you using?
You might need more ‘umfh’ than that. I agree that an impact would be the way to go but I think you’re going to need a more powerful one to get that job done.
Good luck and keep us posted
ok got the harmonic balancer on all the way now lol still no spark. i am guessing the icm is the next step. i am going to try to get the icm tested at auto zone to see if its good or just buy a junk yard one. keep you guys posted.
its not very common for the ICM to fail on these cars but its worth a shot, another thing i would look for is to ensure all the wiring for your ignition system is intact and that all connections are good, weither or not autozone can test your ICM is another thing, just check over your wiring too, make sure the ignition coils themselves are also being fed voltage from the batteries, if the ignition coils aren’t being fed the high amp low volt current from the battery, they can’t convert it into the low amp high volt current used in your ignition system.
out of curiocity what kind of ignition coils does this vehicle use, does it use the 3 individual coils that feed 2 cylinders or something ells?
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