I having an issue with no spark on my car. A little background on the situation:

I drove the car into the garage to add headers. I ended up swapping intakes at the same time. I used Dyno Dons headers and the recommended plugs and wires. I added a new cap and rotor, ICM and ignition coil as well. Got it all buttoned up and now I have zero spark at plugs. Checked all the fuses and connections and all are good. Swapped back to the old ICM and coil but still nothing. My multi-meter took a dump on me so I have to be creative in troubleshooting until I get another one. When I had the manifold off, the distributor was out, obviously. I changed the rotor at that time. The old, probably original, rotor was stubborn to remove. Is it possible that some WD40 got to the area below the rotor and is now preventing the spark somehow?
Can distributors just go bad?
I feel like I'm missing something simple, like a connector somewhere, but I've crawled all over this thing and it all looks good.
Can someone possibly shed some light on something here?
I don't think the car has VATS. (no chip in the key and original keys)
Like I said, the car ran when I started this saga.
Any info on this is much appreciated

 

Wait until you get a vom or goto harbor freight they are cheap there.
check for power on the pink wire at the distributor icm and at the coil.

 

Have you checked for spark off the coil to distributor wire?
Take the cap off and make sure the rotor is spinning when cranking over the car.

There are tall and short rotor button's and tall and short caps... if you happen to have gotten a tall cap and a short rotor button then it wouldn't make contact.

There are magnetic pickups in the distributor that can go bad, wd40 shouldn't of hurt it but if you banged on it to get it off you could of broken something.

 

I'll check if the rotor is spinning when I get home today. I bought the cap and rotor as a set, but I will check and see if they are mating properly. I'm not sure how to check spark off the coil to the distributor.
Can I plug in a plug wire and ground a spark plug and turn over the engine?
The distributor directly under where the rotor sits on the shaft was pretty rusty with surface rust. Is this the magnetic pick up area?

Thanks for helping out with this. I'm ready to drive this thing again!

 

Update:
I have 11.7 volts on the pink wire in the gray connector at the coil. New distributor with new ICM. New ignition coil.

I have checked the #1 injector with a noid light and have no injector pulse to go along with the no spark situation. All the connections look good everywhere. The INJ fuses are good. Cap and rotor are a matched set. the rotor turns when I crank the car. I'm leaning toward either the ECM or an oil pressure switch. I think I can temporarily bypass the OPS to see if that helps. How would I test the ECM. When cranking, I get no SES light.

What am I missing?

 

Are you getting voltage at the icm pink wire ?

 

How do I check that? key in "run" no crank?

 

Correct, I have seen a break in the jumper wire before.
if that checks out fine the new icm is more than likely the issue.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1987-1992-T...YAAOSw-MRbtBii

 

Alot of new icm are bad out of the box even if they ohm correct. Did you do any welding, short something, or hook up the battery backwards? If not the likely hood that the ECU died is slim. You didn't accidentally break the ground strap when working on the headers did you?

 

I would suspect the magnetic pickup in the distributor over the ECU if I were to throw parts at it.

 

Any welding was done with the parts removed from the car. I Ohmed my injectors yesterday. They were all between 15.2 and 15.4 ohms. I went to check the pink wire at the distributor and here's what I found: I had managed to plug the plug from the coil into the MAT or IAT sensor under the intake plenum. I plugged the plug for the MAT or IAT into the ICM. I swapped this back around and still nothing. I swapped another ICM in and nothing, but this ICM may have already been fried since I plugged stuff in incorrectly. Gonna try another ICM and I guess I should also replace the sensor in question as well. D'OH!!

 

Glad your on the right track, replace the mat/iat Is a good idea the 12v might of fried the resistor.

 

Changed ICM again and still dead in the water. I'm about this close to pulling all the factory crap out and doing an LS swap. What's left to check?

 

Did you replace or at least test the pickup?

Alot points to the distributor? Do you have access to an oscilloscope?

when you had it plugged up wrong, one of the connectors could be damaged.

 

https://easyautodiagnostics.com/gm/4...ed-icm-tests-6

 

When I grounded the a and b terminals on the ALDL, the fan came on. No codes flashed. This was done with key in the ON position and the engine not running. Is this normal?
From what I have read, if the ECM is functioning, I should be getting a code 12. What does no code mean? And does grounding the A and B terminals supposed to turn the fans on?
My service manual says doing this will "energize all ECM controlled relays and solenoids except the fuel pump" Is this why the fans came on?

From a Chevrolet service manual for 1988 camaro

 

It’s normal operation for the fans to come on.
Im guessing you still don’t have spark ?
Have you ohmed and checked for voltage output from the pu coil ?

 

Yes. correct I still do not have spark.
The more I read and re-read the manual on jumping a and b terminals, I realized that the fans coming on was normal. I'm gonna check my SES bulb just to see if its burned out. If that bulb is good, then I'm leaning toward the ECM being bad. I have the info for testing that, I just didn't get to it yesterday. It was about 95 degrees in the garage and about 90% humidity! I was sweating my butt off!
I'll check the pick up coil this evening when I get home.

Thanks again

 

What leads you to believe the ecm is faulty?
The ecm operation has no effect on if you have spark or not.

 

From what I have read, When the a and b terminals on the ALDL are jumpered, a code 12 should flash on the SES light. The code 12 indicates the ECM is functioning? IDK but when I do this, I do not have any codes flashing. I need to verify my SES bulb is good before anything else.
Everything else in the system is new (distributor, ICM x 2, ignition coil, cap and rotor x2 , plugs and wires, 12v power on the pink wire at the dist. injectors ohmed good, power to all injectors...).

I'm gonna test the ECM per the shop manual I have. Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

 

SOLVED!!! I was going through the diagnostic steps that Tuned Performance linked-Thanks TP!!! and diagnosed the cap and rotor as the culprit. I would get no spark using a GM HEI spark tester at the spark plug end of the plug wires. Put the same tester on the coil wire at the distributor and BAM! Sparks a plenty! Changed out the cap and rotor and she fired up. I've got some more troubleshooting and some tuning to do on it now!

By the way, the easy diagnostic link on post #15 is very informative and helpful and the tools recommended are cheap and in some cases, they even tell you how to build them. I was on the brink of diving head first into an LS swap just because of a mismatched cap and rotor!!!lol
Now I can enjoy my ride instead of it sitting in the garage!

 

Glad you got it going again