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1990 new yorker landau 3.3l v6 question

3391 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  valiant67
Well, I started to re-enforce my wiring so I used some electrical tape on the electical wires that connect into the crank position censor, this part wasn't connected to anything. This might be why my car is getting no spark, I don't know. Here are some pictures:




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That's for the knock sensor. Sometimes these cars have one, sometimes they don't. My Imperial has a connector just like that but has never had the sensor to connect it to. Hasn't been a problem. It should not be causing your problem.

That said, my 1991 Fifth Avenue parts car does have that sensor.

From the looks of it though, maybe the sensor is there but broken. It's located on the backside of the engine above the passenger side axle. You have to get way down under the car to access it. Bring a flashlight.
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So, this has nothing to do with no sparK?
Very doubtful. There are a few things that could do it, but not this.

Based on your other posts, I'd probably check the ECM connector first. That's the big module bolted to the fender beside the battery. There's a big long connector attached to it with a bolt. See if you can wiggle that connector back and forth. If you can, it's loose - try tightening that bolt with an 8mm socket. If the bolt already is tight, you'll have to unbolt it, remove the connector, and grind some off the end of the bolt to shorten it so it will tighten further. Shouldn't take much.

My 1991 Fifth parts car had problems like this before due to that bolt being too long. Sometimes the car would start and run fine for days, other times it would completely play dead. It threw all kinds of codes. I finally found the problem when I wiggled that connector on a rare day it ran, and the car stalled immediately. This was with a brand new crank sensor. Once I corrected the bolt's length issue, the car never had another problem.

Other things that can cause this include the factory alarm system, the ASD relay in the PDC behind the battery (I'd unplug them all one at a time and check for corrosion on the pins), wiring issues, blown fuses, coil pack (they don't usually fail)... I'm probably forgetting one or two. A lot depends on whether the car just refuses to start, or starts and then immediately stalls.

In particular, I think there's a wiring or connector issue on the black/light blue wire at the ECM. This is the signal ground wire, and is shared by all the sensors that are throwing all the codes on your car. The crank sensor uses it too. A poor connection on this wire at the ECM or that wire being broken somewhere in the harness explains all your symptoms.
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The knock sensor is a piezo sensor (similar to the sparker in a lighter, deforming a crystal causes a voltage), so if there's no knock, there's no voltage input and the computer thinks everything is fine. If the sensor is unplugged, there's no input, which the computer reads as no knock and thinks everything is fine. Even if there is knock input, the computer will retard the timing to stop the knock, which doesn't prevent spark.
Have you verified the crank sensor is sending a signal? That is the first thing in the process of getting spark.
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