Need some ideas

[mustangmike6996]

I was going to take my 96 Cobra to work today. It fired up and died. I tried to restart it and it sounded like the starter was not engaging. I did not have much time to do a diag but I did check a few things.

Had my wife attempt to start the car, saw the belt system spins. I pulled the oil cap and can see the valvetrain move as well. I hear the fuel pump prime (didn't check pressure). I noticed the tachometer was at 0 RPM during turning over (usually would indicate a Crank Pos Sensor failure) I hooked up a multimeter to an injector and got about 8VDC during cranking. I popped a plug wire from the driver coil pack and put the leads in the coil contact and grounded to the battery, there was about 10(ish) volts. I know those aren't accurate steps to troubleshoot the spark or injection but I was in a rush.

It sounds like the starter is freewheeling but it is clearly turning the engine over. I was suspecting maybe the timing chain jumped time but I would think that it would still have some sort of stumble or attempt to fire. It does not.

I will be looking deeper into it tomorrow. Any input would be great.

 

[venom1997]

Press the throttle all the way down and crank sometimes mine does that and it get fuel on the plugs and pressing trotted all the way down shuts injectors off on a start

 

[venom1997]

Try this

 

[mustangmike6996]

It doesn't smell flooded.

I will try it. Does your starter sound likes its freewheeling though? Also, does your tach move off of zero when cranking?

 

[venom1997]

I never noticed the tach but the start sounds way faster when it does that

 

[venom1997]

Was it a cold start

 

[mustangmike6996]

Yea. I drove it about 5 days ago (60 Mile round trip) Started the car and moved it a few days ago (was only running for a few minutes) Today it was a cold start. Fired and stumbled after 5 second (tops) of running. Then it would not start anymore and the starter noise changed where it sounded like it was freespinning the bendix.

 

[venom1997]

Pull a plug and crank it and see if it getting spark and check fuel pressure it just sounds so similar to what happens to mine every once n while

 

[mustangmike6996]

Pull a plug and crank it and see if it getting spark and check fuel pressure it just sounds so similar to what happens to mine every once n while

That's the plan tomorrow. I just put new plugs in it 2 weeks ago so at least they should come out easy.

 

[venom1997]

Keep us posted

 

[mustangmike6996]

Will do. I just need some time with it but Im trying not to burn too much time troubleshooting. Too many other projects. lol

 

[mustangmike6996]

Well, after trying to start it at 1/2 throttle, it did nothing.

I moved to check fuel pressure (38 PSI with no bleed off)

I checked resistance on the crank position sensor (320 ohms)

Checked the cam position sensor (319 ohms)

Pulled the #1 cyl plug wire and verified spark (it was good)

I pulled the cyl #1 plug and decided to do a compression test. I told the person in the car to go wide open throttle and crank it over.
Since it has not been starting, I did not pull the fuel pressure relay or disable spark. As soon as he turned the key the starter stopped making the bendix whining noise and it made the normal noise of an engine turning over. The car fired up........ I had him shut it down and I installed the plug and wire. The car runs fine now. Still don't know what the deal was. The starter noise is throwing me for a loop. I cant duplicate it anymore.