I picked up a project car Friday night. 1993 3000GT base – manual transmission.

The guy I bought it from said the starter wouldn’t turn the engine over, but he could bump start it and it ran great. He wanted too much for it, so I told him I’d get back to him. So I called him back last Thursday, and he said he was bringing the car to get crushed on Friday because he was driving it around his property and it just completely died. So hence, I got a really good deal… It’s old, with a ton of miles, but worst case it’s worth it for the parts. I found over $7000 worth or repair and maintenance receipts inside, dating back to 2000 – YIKES.

I’m going to give it my best to get the sucker running… One of the first things I noticed when I went back to pick up the car was that both ‘fan’ belts were missing. They weren’t really missing – I found them both, busted. They were all dried up and broke at some point into a nasty mess.

So… Assuming this guy wasn’t B.S.ing me, that’s probably what went wrong. So I replaced those. Timing belt looks ‘ok’.

Threw in a brand new battery… When I turn the key to “on”, the electric radiator fan goes on full blast. When I turn to “start”, the radiator fan goes off, but nothing else really happens. I hear some relays click under the dash – that’s about it.

I checked to see if I was getting a signal at the starter relay when the key is turn to “start”. I am not. (I checked on my 95 (that runs fine) to make sure I had the right pin.)

I sort of hot-wired the starter, and it was clicking (like the guy said – although maybe he meant the relays). On day two of me fussing with this beast, the starter started to move the engine. All I did to get that to happen is will it. I can now reliably get it to turn the engine over, but the engine does not start. I turn the ignition switch to “on”, and then manually engage the starter. I see all the belts move like they should – just too slow.

I am getting spark. When I checked for spark, I left a plug out, and smoke puffs out of the open cylinder. I did the same for all three easily accessible cylinders.

The engine sounds too quiet to me as it is turning over. If I watch the timing belt it just moves nice and smooth – like nothing – too smooth for such a slow speed. And there doesn’t seem to be any actual ignition at all. I even tried a little starting fluid.

I’m thinking that whatever is causing the signal from the ignition switch to the starter to not get there is also not turning on the fuel system. I don’t see any fuses or anything for the fuel system. Any hints here?

I found a few connectors that are not connected to anything to I’m suspicious of. Under the driver side, near the fuse box there is a connector with two 7-pin rows. It’s not connected to anything, and there doesn’t seem to be anything within it’s reach to connect to. It looks factory, but at the same time it looks different from any of the other connectors under there. Is this maybe a diagnostic port, pre-ODB? It looks nothing like an ODB-II connector. The other two suspicious connectors are under the hood near the wiper motor. They’re just hanging there. I compared to my 1995, and they’re just not there on the 1995. The leads from all of these connectors are short before they join the nice big wire bundles, so tracing them is difficult. Most “roads” eventually lead to the ECU of course.

If anyone has any insight on any of this, that would awesome.

Thanks,
AYD

not 100% sure but the black wire near the wiper motor could be a direct feed to the fuel pumps!
Have you checked the timimg marks if its not starting it could have jumped a couple of teeth.

When the key is set to "run", there's +12 on one of those connectors by the wipers... so maybe - I cannot find anything to plug it into though. I'll keep looking.

I will check the timing belt too - thanks.

thanks for reading my saga too! :)

update... I'm getting the engine to turn over with the key now. There was a loose screw at the opposite end from the key on the bolt/barrel, where the leads come out. I read about this on another forum.

I kick in the clutch, turn the key and yeaaaaa, the engine.... turns over :(.

It actually back-fired a few times. It won't start though.

Again, everything seems to move toooooooo slooowwwww. I jumpered to another car thinking maybe the battery wasn't strong enough to move the starter fast enough, but that made no difference.

I'm going to pull the starter tomorrow and see if I can service it in any way. It seemed like it was totally seized up when I got the car, and had not been used for a long time - so maybe it's got corrosion or somthing inside reducing it's effectiveness/speed. Anything thoughts on this?

-AYD

I had the starter tested at Advanced Auto Parts, and they said it's fine. They said it looks like I found it in a swamp or somthing, but it's fine.

I replaced the positive and ground battery wires with brand new ones and reinstalled the starter.

Same results. The engine turns over, it fired a few times, but no start.

I pulled the air filter and tried. It smells like gas in the intake after trying for a while.

Does anyone have any ideas for me?

I'll give my take on this, but I'm no expert on these cars. I would first check compression on all your cylinders with a gauge, you need to know if your valve train is doing its job. You'll have to pull the upper plenum to get to the back 3 plugs. I'm really not sure if the valve train is intrusive, but I'm guessing it is.

If all that checks out, recheck your timing marks. If your car puffed a few times, I would suspect a timing issue.

There are alot of qualified people on this board..Hopfully you can get some more feedback.

timing marks line up -
I haven't checked compression - I'm guessing it's not great with 225,000 miles
thanks,
AYD

UPDATE....

I found I am no longer getting a spark.

There is definetly a smell of gas.

I found that the 15AMP ENGINE FUSE under the dash was now blown (I checked all of those before, and they were ok). I replaced the fuse and it blew the very next time I turned over the engine (I still had a plug bolted outside the engine to check spark at the time).

There is what looks like a lead bead bolted to the side of the distributor, with a single wire. When I felt the wire it broke off so I bolted it to the beads bracket - is that cool?

Any input is appreciated - I'll keep you posted.

Ok - that was a bad call on the "lead bead". I think grounding that may have been causing my engine fuse to blow. Does anyone know what that is? It's bolted to the front of the coil plate, but doesn't connect to anything. Maybe it's a capacitor or resistor? There is a pigtail coming from it with a diode or fuse in-line, and then a small connector where it joins the main harness.

I found another problem. Somone must have had the big harness that leads to the coils, sensors and front fuel injectors off at one point, and they put it back wrong. They routed it OVER where the rods from the shifter come down to the transmission, instead of UNDER. OOPS... so those rods have been rubbbing on the bundle of cables. I think the insulation is only rubbed through on one wire - the big brown one.

-AYD

The "lead bead" is a capacitor. Anyone know if it's important?

"
4. Capacitor (if removing coils). Remove the screw that attaches the capacitor to the lower front corner of the bracket. I used visegrip pliers to loosen the screw. The capacitor is attached to the wiring harness. Mitsubishi calls this component the Noise Condenser (illustration 54-550 in CAPS). The part number, MB543146, is the same for all years. The picture below shows the screw that attaches the capacitor (yellow arrow near capacitor) and the two mounting screws (yellow arrows at either end of the bracket).
" - http://www.stealth316.com/2-pwrtransunit.htm -

Well, I pulled all the coils and the PTU module. I used the instructions here: http://www.stealth316.com/2-pwrtransunit.htm to check the PTU, and it checks out. I get equal resistance accross each coil, but I couldn't find instructions on how to test these specific coils.

I AM GETTING SPARK now, on 1 and 5. 3 isn't sparking. I haven't pulled the plenum yet to check 2, 4, 6.

Even if two of my plugs were not sparking, wouldn't it start and run really rough? It fires once in a while when I'm trying, but never more than once at a time.

The ignition key is still giving me some trouble. I tightened the screw where the wires lead in, and it works "most" of the time.

good luck man. I've been following this thread and keep hoping to hear you say you you've got it running. Unfortunately i havn't had any helpful advice for you. Keep giving us progress reports! lol

:) - Thanks for reading - I wasn't sure if I got black listed or somthing - it's good to hear somone's reading.

I just posted to a thread in the montero board - a guy has a problem just like mine - maybe that will pan out. Sounds like the same engine. He seemed really focused on the crank position sensor. I found the post screw on mine to be a little loose, but tightening that up didn't do squat.

My new battery is starting to wear down and my back is worn even more.

UPDATE (don't worry - it's not working yet)...

I pulled the plenum and inspected a bunch of wires in doing so. I found corosion on a connector along what I think is the cam position sensor wire. I cleaned that up.

I replaced all my ignition wires (had a pretty good set I had swapped out on my daily driver) and put in new plugs.

Still no start. No spark on 3 and 6. These are both on the forward most coil. I put my ohm meter accross each coil. I get no connection on the back two, but I get a reading on the one that is giving no spark. When I had those babies off, I checked each one and got the same reading on each!!! I guess I don't understand how that's all connected, but I'm thinking that the 3-6 coil is is cuplrit.

Wouldn't the car still start firing on 4 cyliners though? Or does the short in the 3-6 coil have other effect besides no spark on those two plugs?

I'm thinking about pulling the coil from my daily driver and giving that a whirl, but I'm a little nervous about that - I don't want to blow it and have two project cars.

GOOD NIGHT!

I pulled the coil pack from my 95, and tried it on the beast. I'm getting spark on 3 and 6 now. So I definetly need a new coil / coil pack.

But the beast still won't roar.

If I have spark and gas I should get some boom, but I'm not.

At this point I'm moving my attention to the fuel system. I know I'm getting SOME gas, because I could smell it when I was cranking the engine with the plugs out - and she fires once in a while. My pump must be doing somthing - hopefully it's good. The beast has probably been sitting around for a year or more, so gas anywhere in the fuel system could be all gunked up. I added probably a gallon of gas to the tank - but who knows what was in there. ... I guess I'll start with somthing simple and check/swap the fuel filter.


Oh, and I put my coils back on the 95 and she started, so at least I can get to work tomorrow.