mrmtbaldy

I'm having a no start issue with my 200 20v. I was driving home from work the other night, and while pulling away from a stop sign, the car felt like it stalled. Tried starting it again to avail. Not even a sputter, just dead. I even was on a bit of a hill and tried jump starting it while coasting it downhill, with not even a try. So I trailered it home, and started going through things, but everything is checking out. It has good spark on all 5 cylinders, is in time, has good compression, and seems to be getting fuel (I cracked one of the banjo bolts on the fuel rail and it squirted pretty good). The spark plugs look a little wet, but not like they should look if its getting fuel but not burning it. I can hear the fuel pump when i take the relay out and bridge to gap between the big terminals with a piece of wire, and it still wont start, even with the fuel pump manually on. I'm at a loss. Would a bad hall sensor still allow the engine to spark?

GroupBquattro

Kinda strange to have spark and wet plugs and yet it won't fire. I don't know if we can compare situations, but years ago when I was rallying my 5000 the car died on me during one stage. Ned Ritchie of Intended Acceleration who tuned my car came over, everything checked out, and then he went under the dashboard and he found a large connector that got disconnected due to the heavy bumps. It was somewhere behind the instrument cluster, something about 5 inches long.

mrmtbaldy

Yeah, it's really weird. I just checked the RPM and speed sensor and those are fine too. Thanks for the tip about the electrical, I'll check the back of the instrument cluster just to be sure.

mrmtbaldy

Are there any components on a 3B that will allow everything to function as it should, but not let the ECU "see" that it can run, ie an ignition switch or some kind of electronic dead man switch? I'm running out of ideas on what could be causing this issue. The only code I'm getting, by the way, is 2111, RPM sensor, which makes sense because it's not running. Any ideas?

Kneale Brownson

How do you KNOW the timing is correct? Can you see the flywheel mark while the front cylinder is at top dead center?

mrmtbaldy

I've removed the timing belt cover and have checked it with a timing gun. Seems to be right on the money.

Kneale Brownson

So you're using the mark on the front pulley? Those rarely are "on" as the dampening part of the pulley changes with age. You NEED to see the flywheel mark and have the front piston in TDC firing position with the distributor rotor pointing toward its mark.

GroupBquattro

But how can the timing go bad so sudden while driving, unless something broke, which would be visible I guess.

Kneale Brownson

Check the distributor retention nut. See if the rotor is correct and points to the mark.

These distributors originally came with a plastic gear that can fail.

mrmtbaldy

Distributer is good, I have the brass gear installed from a previous failure. I checked the timing with the TDC mark on the flywheel, and everything was perfect also.
I did have one change of events though. On one of the start attempts, after cranking the motor for at least 10 seconds, the motor tried to start for about ten revolutions. It seemed to be starving for something, but as soon as I stopped cranking, it died. Pushing the gas also made it stop trying. So maybe fuel?