i have a 88 t/a gta that is getting no spark. the plugs, wires. cap, rotor and external ignition coil are all new. i heard somewhere that the VATS sytem may disable the spark. this is interesting to me because i bought the car used, only to later discover that the alarm wiring was seriosly tampered with, nothing like GM factory wiring. ther are all kinds of loose wires, splices and wires being tapped into wiring harnesses, a real cluster @%&! they are all held in place with electrical tape. Basically, with all these disconnected and half *** connections i am wondering if they could be suspect for the no spark problem? does the VATS disable spark on 1988 trans ams?

 

Yeah, those VATS systems are all too often tampered with and screwed up. take off your drivers side kick panel and have a look at the enabler relay that sits just behind the kick panel. That is where most people bypass the system. There are 4 wires going into the relay if I remember correctly and alot of people will bypass the relay and splice the two green wires together....i think they are green, but you'll know as soon as you look at it if something is wrong.

 

not sure what the 88 vats does but on my 92 it use to disable the starter

 

The VATS anti-theft system disables the starter& the fuel system on starting ONLY. On the coil is a plug from main harness ,two wires,pink and white.The pink is the 12v power feed from ignition switch.Does this wire show power with the key in the "run" position? You might also have a pickup coil inside distributor that is the culprit.Checking that pink wire is the easiest test to do