1990 Loyale

[ForrestLittle]

My buddy Eric1111 has been working on my car. I cant sign into his account for some reason to post this so I made my own account to post for him.

 

(Loyale 1990 with weber conversion)

 

Eric says--

 

I've just finished replacing the clutch components and was to the point of trying to start the engine. It turned over nice, sounded good, good battery, but I hadn't hooked up the throttle. Next try, turns over nicely, timing's off, shut off the key, adjust timing. Try again, turns over, but timings wrong. Shut it off, adjust timing. Turn the key and nothing happens.

   Now the horn works, the emergency blinkers work. The chime that tells me my hand is on the key works, but I can't find anything else that does work.

  All the fuses look good. The fused links look like they did before, and I switched them around,looking for some change.

The battery reads 12.48V, (It was 12.49 before I jumped the starter, which turned the engine over easily), but at the ignition switch,the hot wire reads 11.82V, with the key in the off position. Is the 1 volt loss an issue? 

 I thought I had it narrowed down to the ignition switch. Replaced that to find zero change. Been workin on this car all day with Adam Sandler's POS car tune going in my head. Any thoughts on what the issue is? 

[Ionstorm66]

Check the ground on the block? Also check the power at the switch while trying to start.

[Dee2]

Check the battery cable connections.  Might just need cleaning or  ??

[Rampage]

12 hours ago, ForrestLittle said:

at the ignition switch,the hot wire reads 11.82V, with the key in the off position.

What is the voltage "there" when you turn the key on and try to start?

[DaveT]

12.6V is normal resting voltage for a good fully charged battery.  Resting means no charging or drawing current for several hours.
12.0V is fully discharged.
That the idle voltage on the battery dropped .01V after a crank, is no surprise.

11.82 at the switch, with no load, is not good, or there is a load that's pulling it down.  With everything off, [doors shut, etc.] the voltage at the switch should be the same as the battery terminals.

You are looking for a bad connection somewhere.  Check voltages at accessible points in the wiring harness, follow the schematic.  Check with everything off, and with loading.

[ferp420]

13 hours ago, Ionstorm66 said:

Check the ground on the block? Also check the power at the switch while trying to start.

these cars are vary touchy about there ground wires i had one fall off while wheelin took me 4 hours to figure out 1 ground wire pulled out

on these cars you cant have to many ground wires i would almost say every major component have 3 grounds one to body one to block one to battery

small loads are fine through the body but dont rely on it for a ground source

[ForrestLittle]

Hey all, thanks for your feedback.

So far he's determined is that there's a box with 4 wires under the hood that blows when there's a short. So now he's looking for the short. 

Will keep you posted.

[DaveT]

Disconnect the fat wire from the nut on the alternator.  See if the short goes away.

 

[ForrestLittle]

From Eric:

 

Hi, I'm writing to thank yall for the help with the lack of power and to share the resolution of the fusible link melting. The large lead to the alternator was making contact with the compressor belt-adjust bracket. Now to get back to timing the little beast. Thanks again

 

[Ionstorm66]

I replaced mine with FMX style fuses, they fit right in the holder. The colors even matched the amp rating on the fusible links. I also carry a spare set in the car now. Way WAY easier than the older links. I had them go bad/come loose on both cars more than once.

[Ionstorm66]

[DaveT]

Interesting.  They just plug on, or are there mods?

 

 

[ForrestLittle]

Eric says

 I've found that the left-hand timing belt tensioner loosens on this 1990 Loyale EA82, and makes setting the timing some what pointless. I installed thread inserts, and noticed that those left side tensioner boltholes stripped awful easy as I was replacing the timing components. It causes me to wunder if they got stressed by over tightening because of an unknown history of this leftside tensioner losening..

   I've started thinking that this loosening repeatedly has something to do with the seemingly elliptical rotation of the crankshaft if one compares it's rotation to a fixed position on the engine block as seen from passenger side front of the car. ( I replaced that seal, and the old one was not malformed from any apparent violence)

     If the crankshaft moves elliptically, if that's even possible, then I think we have some deeper issues. I suppose that I could simply be seeing evidence that the pulley is goofy and that shaft spins stably. I'll explore this question next, but I wonder if any folks have any thoughts on it.

[DaveT]

I've been running & maintaining these engines since 1988.  Several cars.  Have not had any problem like this.  One used engine had a stripped hole on one of the timing belt tensioner pulley brackets.   Steel bolts into aluminum - be very careful to follow the torque specs in the manuals.

I suspect those bolt holes were stripped by someone previous to your work, if they stripped easily compared to other similar [steel bolt, aluminum block] things you have dealt with.