My stepdaughter bought this car('89 Formula, 305 TBI). She got it cheap, and now I know why.

Seems the previous owner lost the keys, and in an effort to use his car managed to mangle the ignition tumbler...guess what?....he couldn't get it to start!

From what I've managed to understand, a resistor is needed between the two yellow wires he left dangling out the tumbler shaft. Trouble is, I have no way of knowing how much resistance I need....I'm not very electronically knowledgable.

The motor will crank over, but the injectors only spray when the battery voltage is very low(just barely turning). It has hit a few times, even ran (with much aggravation), but once the RPM's come up and the voltage from the alternator climbs....the injectors shut off and it dies.

Only code I get is a "53", which the Haynes manual says has to do with 17.1 volts going to the ECM "B2" terminal for more than "X" seconds.(I know what the ECM is....whats' a "B2" terminal?)

Another helpful member here had a more indepth discription, and part of it had to do with VATS.....which I'm assuming is the "17.1 volts" bit.

Anybody got any ideas as to what I can do to fix this problem short of an intake, carb and fuel pressure regulator?

NM

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/vats.shtml

 

Thanks....but how do I find the resistance value if the key is MIA?

Just keep trying resistors 'till I find one that works?.......

That may take a while!

NM

 

Since you're able to crank the starter over in the car, it means that the vats setup has already been partially defeated or perhaps bypassed all together.

An ignition switch harness color code guide is avaliable here:

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=144861

(If you look closely, you'll also find some info on vats).

As for other options, you can:

-have the car towed to the local chevy dealership and they will use their vats interagator to determine the proper resistance.
-purchase and install a new vats decoder. then you'll be able to reset the vats key pellet to a known value
-sell the car on ebay. if you got it cheap, chances are that you'll be able to get your money back when you sell it.

 

Do a search...I seem to remember a post somewhere on here where all of the possible resistance values for the VATS system were listed. There's only like 9 or 10 of them in all, and if you could find the post with the listed resistances, you'd only have to get 10 different resistors, and try them till it works. Unfortunately, Radio Shack sells them in packs of 5, so you could just buy all the packs, and return the ones that don't work. Good luck!