I had the engine out for frame work. I missed disconnecting the 4 wires plug that goes to the distributor and pulled the wires out of the connector. This is the connector on the main harness, that plugs into the short loom that goes to the distributor. I put everything back and soldered the wires to the connector pins. Hooked white to white, purple to purple, etc. It tries to start, coughs a little, but no go. I've got a wimpy little spark which I know isn't right.

The reason I'm asking the question here rather than the engine board is that with Auto-Xray connected, I'm showing a couple strange reading. With the engine not turning, I'm showing 110 to 160 rpm and I'm showing a desired rpm of 3187. When I crank the engine, it shows about 370 rpm but drops back to somewhere in the 110-160 rpm range when I quit cranking. I think this is a clue to the problem.

Oops, forgot to mention, it's '88 MAF w/cold start injector.

I'll check all the grounds tomorrow. It ran before I took it apart, started great, barely turn the key to start and it was running. I don't have any error codes. Fuel pump is running and I can hear the IAC stepper motor. I don't have a noid light, but I can smell fuel in the plenum with the air cleaner off. Spark seems regular but very weak.

 

Sounds like you need to check the wiring, shouldnt have any RPM with the engine not running. The 3187 RPM (mine says 3175 IIRC) with key on engine off is normal.
Might have a wire crossed or one touching another or the like.

 

go cut a fresh pigtial off another car and replace a good 12 inch section of harness. id bet you tore the wire internally and you may have fubar'd the module.

 

As near as I can tell from doing some further reading, these wires are not even needed to get spark. These control the spark advance/retard. Still I think they also provide the engine speed signal to fire the injectors but even with the 4-way connector disconnected it looks like it would still have spark.

Can somebody confirm this?

 

yeah the ecm needs a ref pulse formteh module to fire the injectors. i think that theproblem. you could have also put a small fracture in the module and ruined the electronics