I have an '86 Trans Am, with what I believe is an LG4 305. I bought the car several years ago for parts, but never needed anything and now I'm selling it to a friend who wants to drive it. It was running when I bought it and I even drove it down the street a few times during the first month I owned it. The alternator hasn't had a pully on it since I've owned it and none of the wires are hooked up to it. A couple months after I bought (and not having changed a thing), I tried to start it up so I could move it, but it wouldn't fire. I pulled it to where I wanted it and now, 2 years later, I need to fix what ever it keeping is from starting. On my first attempts, I poured a little gas down the carb, but not luck. After several seconds of cranking, it did pump gas up to the carb on its own. I figure this has to be some kind of a spark problem, so I changed the rotor and cap, but still no luck. I haven't checked for spark yet, but will do that in just a few minutes. I'm unfamiliar with quadrajets and this one has a couple wires running to it. Does this car have any sort of a computer that could be on the fritz? I wouldn't have thought so, but I'm unfamilar with engines of this period. Other than electric choke, what are the wires to the carb for? I have an older distrubter that is vacuum advance that I could put on the car, but I don't know if that could cause some sort of problem. Basically I'm looking for some opinions and ideas to try out.

Thanks
Rex

 

I took a plug out, left wire attached, cranked engine over, but couldn't detect a spark.

 

So you're getting no spark then?

I don't understand how your car would run anyway if you don't have an alternator. The alternator powers the car while it's running.

Check and make sure the coil is working properly.

If you have access to one (I don't see why you would have access to one though) you could hook it up to an oscilloscope and watch the spark plug activity, firing line and all those.

 

I'm really not very familiar with engine electrical systems. When I bought I was told that it had been wired to run from the battery and that it wouldn't run long like that. I've also noticed a red hot wire that is cut in half, but when I touch the ends together the car cranks.

Obviously I need to fix the wiring and hopefully that will fix my problem or atleast eliminate that possibility. If anyone has a diagram of how the distributor, alternator, starter and battery are suppose to connect I would really appreciate it.

Thanks
Rex

 

I doubt anyone has a diagram of all that, but I recommend you pick up a haynes manual for our 82-92 camaros, you could find all that information in the manual. It's about 20 bucks at autozone.

 

It should be a very basic and common diagram. Unfortunately I've not found it in the haynes manual.