1993 240SX FB (Base) - No Power to Coil

[HSVDrifting]

I bought this thing basically disassembled. It's sole purpose is to become the turbo drift beater from "H E double hockey sticks" . Anyway, so here's my problem:

First off, we ARE putting a KA24DE into the car. No odd swaps or anything. Anyway, a few friends and I got the motor and transmission in the car, and everything's hooked up (to the best of my knowledge). The motor isn't turning over, so the first diagnostic thing my friends and I think of doing is checking spark. We pulled plug #1 and connected it to wire #1. While we had plug #1 out, we pulled the distributor out and made sure the timing marks matched up. I crank the car...no spark. So we replace the spark plug, and pull the lead that goes from the coil to the distributor out of the distributor (thinking maybe the distributor was bad). We tried to get it to arc to ground...still no spark. Then we pulled the plug out of the coil (the one for the coil is the 2-wire plug right?) and hooked up a test light and tried to start it, only to find that, apparently, the ignition coil isn't even getting power.

Long story short...I've run out of ideas. The last thing I can think of trying is getting an ECU out of a friend's parts car and trying that one. When I was hooking up the starter, I forgot the battery was connected, and when I pulled my hand back after plugging in the plug, I nudged a hot wire into the frame and made a BIG spark (big enough to blow the alternator fuse ). This also happened to be pretty much directly under the ECU.

If anyone has any OTHER ideas, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,Collin
Modified by HSVDrifting at 12:36 PM 3/26/2007

[HSVDrifting]

UPDATE: Alright, I found a buddy with a spare ECU. I'm going to pick that up around 4:30 CST and give it a try. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

In the mean time, whatever help you can offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks very much,Collin

[TheGoodDR]

Check all you fuses. A short that big might have toasted more than one. Also, does your car have a little coil transistor dealio right next to the coil? I've had a couple of those bite the dust and cause a no spark problem. I'll get a picture of what I'm talking about soon, but it will be right next to the coil. But check all your fuses first.

[HSVDrifting]

Thanks. I literally checked every fuse that I could find in the car (including relays). I finally found the ignition relay and tested that as well...the only thing blown was the Alt. fuse. I figured out my ECU wasn't bad, lol. I switched it into diagnostic mode and it threw three codes:

13: coolant temp sensor21: *** ignition signal *** <-- hmm...I wonder...34: knock sensor

Now, I've been told that I can get away with no Knock Sensor, as long as I'm not boosting. So I'm safe there. The dumb f**k before me that owned this motor capped off the Coolant Temp Sensor...lucky me. Now the only thing that I can see causing this would be the Ignition Signal code. Any ideas what this means? The only things I can think of is that maybe that "ignitor" is bad or the distributor is bad.

Anyway...I just wanted to share this update with you.

Thanks again,Collin

[TheGoodDR]

Thanks. I literally checked every fuse that I could find in the car (including relays). I finally found the ignition relay and tested that as well...the only thing blown was the Alt. fuse. I figured out my ECU wasn't bad, lol. I switched it into diagnostic mode and it threw three codes:

13: coolant temp sensor21: *** ignition signal *** <-- hmm...I wonder...34: knock sensor

Now, I've been told that I can get away with no Knock Sensor, as long as I'm not boosting. So I'm safe there. The dumb f**k before me that owned this motor capped off the Coolant Temp Sensor...lucky me. Now the only thing that I can see causing this would be the Ignition Signal code. Any ideas what this means? The only things I can think of is that maybe that "ignitor" is bad or the distributor is bad.

Anyway...I just wanted to share this update with you.

Thanks again,Collin

No problem. If you're not getting power to the coil itself you can take the distributor out of the picture. And a knock sensor failure will mess with your timing and fuel delivery but it would never stop power from getting to the coil. As for the ignitor, check for voltage at the ignitor when you turn the car over. It should see either 8 or 12 volts. (I can't remember which).

Good luck.

[HSVDrifting]

New coil and ignitor chip...same old problem. I swear to God, I'm out of ideas...

It's even still throwing code 21 (ignition signal)...

[HSVDrifting]

Scratch my last. It's sparking now...however, it's leaking a good bit of oil from the intake side every time I try to turn the motor over. I've been told that the Oil Sending Unit doesn't thread all the way in...is this true? I also think that the timing is off. If anyone could point me to a good 240SX timing guide, it'd be much appreciated.

[HSVDrifting]

lol...again...nevermind...FSMs are the sh1t! I plan on pulling the KA tonight, figuring out that oil leak, retiming it, and putting it back in. I'll update in a few days.