Possible wiring problems???

mack84

New Member
Dec 26, 2005
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Lowgap,NC
I have a '92 mustang that use to be a 4cylinder, but was converted to a 5.0 using an '88 HO motor and a '91 harness. The problem with the car is that it is not running on the #1 cylinder (it has a dead miss at any rpm). I did a compression check and that turned out good, checked to see if the injector was pulsin and it was, checked to see if the plug was gettin fire and it was and I even changed the injector and it still misses... Another thing is when ya pull the #1 plug out when ya run the motor it has wet gas on the plug and ya can pull any of the other plugs out and there dry as a bone... The only thing I can think of is that maybe it has somethin to do with the wiring harness(wrong year or a possible short)... I'm guessin' the car needs a '93 harness, cause it doesn't have the fuel pump relay under the seat... Any help would be appreciated, cause I don't wanna have to go carb'd and have sucky gas mileage and crappy cold starts...
 
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Cylinder balance test:
Warm the car's engine up to normal operating temperature. Use a
jumper wire or paper clip to put the computer into test mode. Start
the engine and let it go through the normal diagnostic tests, then
quickly press the throttle to the floor. The engine RPM should exceed
2500 RPM's for a brief second. The engine RPM's will increase to about
1450-1600 RPM and hold steady. The engine will shut off power to each
injector, one at a time. When it has sequenced through all 8 injectors,
it will flash 9 for everything OK, or the number of the failing cylinder
such as 2 for cylinder #2. Quickly pressing the throttle again up to
2500 RPM’s will cause the test to re-run with smaller qualifying figures.
Do it a third time, and if the same cylinder shows up, the cylinder is
weak and isn’t putting out power like it should. See the Chilton’s Shop
manual for the complete test procedure

Here's the link to dump the computer codes with only a jumper wire
or paper clip and the check engine light, or test light or voltmeter.
I’ve used it for years, and it works great.

See http://www.troublecodes.net/Ford/

IF your car is an 86-88 stang, you'll have to use the test lamp or voltmeter method.
There is no functional check engine light on the 86-88's except possibly the Cali Mass Air cars.

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89 through 95 cars have a working Check Engine light. Watch it instead of a test lamp.

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Do a compression test on all the cylinders.
Take special note of any cylinder that shows up as weak in the cylinder
balance test. Low compression on one of these cylinders rules out the
injectors as being the most likely cause of the problem. Look at cylinders
that fail the cylinder balance test but have good compression. These
cylinders either have a bad injector, bad spark plug or spark plug wire.
Move the wire and then the spark plug to another cylinder and run the
cylinder balance test again. If it follows the moved wire or spark plug,
you have found the problem. If the same cylinder fails the test again,
the injector is bad. If different cylinders fail the cylinder balance test,
you have ignition problems or wiring problems in the 10 pin black &
white electrical connectors located by the EGR.

How to do a compression test:
Only use a compression tester with a screw in adapter for the spark
plug hole. The other type leaks too much to get an accurate reading.
Your local auto parts store may have a compression tester to rent.
If you do mechanic work on your own car on a regular basis, it would
be a good tool to add to your collection.

With the engine warmed up, remove all spark plugs and prop the
throttle wide open, crank the engine until it the gage reading stops
increasing. On a cold engine, it will be hard to tell what's good &
what's not. Some of the recent posts have numbers ranging from
140-170 psi. If the compression is low, squirt some oil in the cylinder
and do it again – if it comes up, the rings are worn. There should be
no more than 10% difference between cylinders. Use a blow down
leak test (puts compressed air inside cylinders) on cylinders that
have more than 10% difference.

See the link to my site for details on how to build your own blow
down type compression tester.
 
It smells like gas cause it not firing. Have you tried another plug. Aslo what color is the spark. I have seen a plug wire spark but if you do a resistance check on the plug wire its bad. I cant remember what its supposed to be but I would check that first.