Hello All,

I'm getting back into working on the Camaro that had been sitting in the yard. I bought a home with a garage, so now I have a nice space to work in.

The car is a 1989 Camaro with the original TPI and 99k miles. It has been sitting since 2006, but had been started up until 09. The car had an issue back in 06 (may still have ) where it was running and dieing. If you search the boards you can find my posts concerning that issue. I'm hoping the new fuel pump fixes that, but I need to get it started to debug further. I had replaced plugs wires, coil, cap, and just recently replaced fuel pump. The car has a hypertech chip in it.

The car last started in late 08 early 09 (I think). It blew the fuel pump fuse, and never started again.

I replaced the fuse, then replaced the fuel pump (the old one was dead, the filter sock had turned to dust). I swapped out my fuel gauge sender as the potentiometer had failed. That seemed like a rip off but at least the fuel gauge works. Swapping the pump wasn't that bad with the garage, I'm glad I went that way instead of trying to cut a hole.

Ok I tried cranking. No dice. Put a fuel Pressure Gauge on the rail 40 PSI, jumps to 45PSI when cranking. I then put a spark plug light on the plugs at the distributor, I'm getting spark. I noided the injectors, no light. I followed the chart in the book and stopped short of replace ECM. I dug around on the boards to try to figure some other tests.

I read about the hall effect sensor on the distributor and thought for sure that would be it. I put a scope on the reference line and got my square wave so that was not it.

I had to replace my autoxray as my old one had died. Just this evening I was able to log some data with the new one. I'm going to attach the readings I took. I did a capture so I had around 14 seconds worth of data. Anything that didn't change much I put one value down for, if it did change i added a => to denote went from x => y. I had the MAF disconnected so don't focus on that value much. Also the throttle sensor voltage scales from 0.7V to 5 VDC as displayed by the meter.

The battery voltage was a little low, but I think thats ok since its during cranking. I did not have a noid light on, so I may have to run that test again to compare what the ECM thinks its doing, and what its really doing, thats probably something I could put the scope on also? I am getting 12V from either side of the injector harness to ground.

One side note is that it has cranked throughout this testing process. I had checked the VATs, (cleaned connector) and then hooked up the scan tool. I scanned key on car off, then tried to start and capture. The car cranked didnt start. Then it tripped the security that killed the start relay. I only had it happen once, but it is worth mentioning. I checked the resistance value at the column at around 1100 ohms. Looking at the manual, I have to tear into the dash to get at the VATS module? If the ECM is reporting that its pulsing the injectors via the scan tool, does that mean that the VATS is good?

Hopefully I haven't been too long winded. I will try to respond with updates, but this may go on for a little while as I'm tinkering on the weekends. As always any thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks,
Martin

EDIT
Oil pressure sensor was dirty, but the gauge is reporting pressure when cranking so I think this is ok?

 

Bad VATS will disable starter enable relay and the injectors, so if injectors are firing VATS is not an issue.

 

If the VATS relay is bad will the car still crank but not send the injector pulse?

 

If the relay is bad, then the starter won't get the 12v needed to turn.

 

I finally got around to my next step, I replaced the injectors as some were reading out of spec. I tried starting the car today and it started right up. I also replaced the EGR valve (while I had the intake off) and replaced a lot of the vacuum lines (leaks everywhere...) Now that its running I can work on getting it running good.

Thanks for the comments!

Martin