Okay... so I've been looking through these threads and I still can't get a good grasp. lol

My 89 formula recently doesn't want to start when I turn key(but occasionally it will start fine). I see the security light come on in the run position but I need to look at it tonight to see if it turns off. Fuel pump is priming, instrument cluster is working, etc.

I unplugged the starter relay and it was filled with some sort of nasty black grease? I bought the car brand new in 88 so I'm guessing that grease is what came in it.

I jumped the two thick wires on the plug going into the relay and the car immediately started cranking over but would not start. I'm guessing the injectors are not pulsing.

I'll check the security light when I get home. I will also try my spare key (just dawned on me that I should try that) and I can test the injector pulse with my noid light(if I can find my noid lights).

 

Had about the same problem, ended up being the pick up coil in the distributor. If you get it to crank, when you do check your tach. If it doesn't move chances are the computer isn't getting a signal because the pick up coil is bad. The ecm needs to see that the engine is turning over to pulse the injectors on.

 

Found my spare key. Still same problem so not a problem with the key itself. Also security light isn't coming on at all. I guess I imagined that before. I'll update this thread when I figure it out.

 

Okay... read up on all the stories on the vats resistor bypass. I did it and it worked great. Mine was #7 1.87
I stopped by radio shack and got the assortment pack then soldered in series and heat shrinked the two resistors I needed. Instead of cutting my wires I got some plugs from a local junkyard so I just have a empty plug hanging now. In case someone in the future wants to hook it back up they can.

I did run into a strange problem. All the posts I've read on this showed two white wire in a orange sleeve. I looked at 3 junkyard cars that also had it this way. Mine was different... it had 2 orange wires(at least I think they are orange... I'm colorblind) in a black sleeve. I plugged my new resistor plug in and it now works fine. Security light comes on and goes off like its supposed to.