Went to fire my 89 Camaro RS/ 305 V-8 up to move it this morning and it would not crank. It just turns over and over. It ran fine last night when I drove it home, this is the first time it has ever failed to crank. I have noticed it seeming to be a little harder to crank in the past few weeks, and now it won't crank at all. I suspect the coil has went out. I poured a teaspoon of fuel into each side of the throttle body and it still wouldn't start. I puleed off one of the spark plug wires, put a jumper wire into the plug wire-touched it to ground and watched it while the engine was being turned over.......very-very-very faint spark only ONCE. I am used to the older cars sparking big and loud when this is done.
So, that is why I am suspecting the coil is bad.
BUT.......I read a post earlier about the smell of gas behind the car and that has gotten me concerned, but I guess when you try to crank a car with a throttle body or fuel injection even though it does not crank, fuel is still being supplied to the engine and turning the engine over still opens and closes the intake and exhaust valves and you still would get unburnt gas fumes from the exhaust. Okay....I answered my own question on the fuel smell part. But what do you think about the bad coil part?

 

By the way, I checked the ALDL and it flashes code 12 over and over and over again. I know it does it 3 times at first, but it still flashes it after the initial 3

 

i havent ever done it this way, i supose it should work, but if u saw spark i guess it'll work. first thing, i would inspect distributor cap and rotor(not costly to replace), plug wires may need replaced.... basically an ignition tuneup. especially if its been a while since the last one.

i was having firing problems on my car (same as yours) and i thought COIL right off. but that wasn't it. while you have the cap off look about an inch below the rotor for breakage. this is what happened to mine. rusted from moisture and broke apart, jamming up the dizzy.

EDIT: mine jammed up while driving it..... hard. i dont see that happening with it sitting over night. maybe on the initial crank that morning, it could have happened. but this probably isnt the problem. GOOD LUCK.

 

OK, here is where I stand now. The Dist cap and button is new, new wires also. The jelly stuff must have been the stuff some people put in plug wires to defend against moisture. Still no won't run. Will spin over great, just won't fire. TB still pumping fuel good into butterflies. The fellow I bought the car from put all the new stuff on it, PVC valve, plug wires, dist cap and button, BUT the coil does not look new like the other stuff does. ALDL still flashing code 12 which according to GM means "Diagnostic or no distributor reference pulses to ECM"

 

as far as the code goes, if it isnt running, i dont think the ecm would have long enough to pick up a code. the no reference form distributor just means the engines not running. u didnt mention the dist being tore up i guess it was in good shape. im not near being the smartest guy on this logged on right now help?. but i just have a had problems on this before. if you have a ride take that coil to the local auto parts store, i know the ones here will check em out. as far as i can tell, its 2 bolts, 2 wire conectors, and a coil wire. and if you go id take the ignition module with you too. use plenty of dielectric grease on the bottom when u put it back on. thats all i can say now. sorry, and good luck.

 

oh if you have some sort of multimeter, see if you are getting voltage at the coil before you take it off. completely forgot that you can check them yourself. be careful

 

Check the ignition module. I had the same problem in my 91. Bad module.

 

I second that

 

OK, dumb question.........where is the ignition control module?? Sorry for being so dumb on this later model computerized stuff, but this is what I am used to working on ............BarryBum's Cuda

 

Cool car, now go pretend to change the points and you'll see the ICM

 

yep, right under the rotor. All the wires will be attached.

 

Well, the coil was not it. You guys still think the ICM is the next thing to try? How about the immobilizer thing? Do those things fail?

 

Are you talking about the reluctor? Star shaped thing? Generally only problem with them is they cracked/break...cause erratic timing issue...unless part of it is missing could cause no-start.

You can take the ICM into AutoZone ect, to be tested...but be forewarned, I've had bad ones test good before. All they do is hook it up and see if some LED's light up to test the circuitry inside.

But, good thing is, in my cases, I've never had a good one test bad...

 

just replaced the module in mine, cost 17.99 at autozone. Finally got my car running and ready to go and the module goes out.

 

i would go with ignition control module. they get heat soaked for years and the just end up going kaput. and so you know when it flashes the "12" thats to let you know that it is reading the computer ok. thats just so you know its working, nothing else.

 

unfortunately the ignition module does not give a warning when it goes out like most things. When mine went out, it stumbled a little then totally took a dump within 2 seconds.... easy to fix though... takes about 10 minutes... BE SURE TO PUT MORE HEAT COMPOUND ON THE NEW ONE