just bought an 89 sidekick it says efi on the motor..

[Nebraskan_Withapassion]

i have an 89 sidekick, just bought it from a buddy, well it all started about a month or two ago,, the fuel pump stopped working, i was looken under the hood for a loose wire or somethin and found that the ground wires that are bolted to the block right under the dizzy were loose and it would spark when you would try to start it, so i tightend that than moved on to drop the tank and found out the pump wasnt getting power, we ran a wire from a power source thats hot when the key turns on, well we did this and it ran fine for about a week, than it wouldnt start again. found out the biggest of the wires that ran straight to the fire wall melted from the block to the fire wall, this wire was grouped together with other wires. so idk if it melted thru a couple of those and shored somethin out????? but i cut that wire out and reconnected all the wires that were ran to under the dizzy, but no luck and when its turning over its really really slow, if anyone has any helpful tips i would very much apreciate it.. thank you all in advance... any questions u have about it just ask...

[MarkB.NV]

IIRC, the '89 Sidekick cam standard with the 1.6 L inline 4, the original problem could have been a fuse failure. Installing a jumper wire that bypassed the fblown fuse MAY allowed the fuel pump to draw excess current and burn the jumper wire, melting several others in the process. Based on only speculation, the solution appears to be 1) replace the fuel pump, and 2) replace the wiring harness with a unit you pulled from the junk yard.

Maybe someone else has the factory service manual, but I only have access tot he cheapo Haynes manual. This Haynes manual lists a "control relay" to operate the fuel pump, and this relay is operated by the ECM and turns on the fuel pump at the proper time. There is a fuel pump fuse in my '91 tracker (15A and labeled Ignition/Coil).

Sorry but thats all I got, its really hard to troubleshoot user modified cars over the internet.

[Nebraskan_Withapassion]

The fuel pump is fine with the direct power wire to it.. THe guy i bought it from put a push button starter in it, if that has anything to do with it ilke u turn the key to power on and push the button to start it..

id really like to know what all the wires that ground to the block do, and if i need to have all of theme hooked to it or not..

and when u go to turn it over to start its like the battery is about dead but i have my other car hooked up to it with jumpers so i dont think that would be the problem..


when it gets warmer out i plan to go threw all the wires but as of right now i just wanted to get it running to play around with...

[jtgh]

ill send a schematic if I can.
those wires are all necessary.
you didnt say , it sparked at key on, or just in the KEY start position.

I will guess you have , a 89 Throttle body fuel injected 8valve engine.
The ECU is grounded to the Dizzy base bolt, <<< warning; not having grounds right will blow the ECU to smithereens.

First the following grounds must be in place and clean and tight
Neg. post of battery with huge wire to starter mount bolt !!! must ! be there.
Neg. Post to right finder body ground wire.
then behide Dizzy is another ground strap fire wall to block .
then the dizzy grounds to the harness
and some have grounds to Thermostat housing.

none or an accident , all are crutial.

One last ground, transmission to body strap, if missing , the automatic solenoids will fail.
you didnt say tranny type. so....

if mess up the grounds the starter current (100 fold increase) will pass thru the
ECU , and roast it to heck.

i will PM your schematic link.
all i have is ecu schematic. but way i said about grounds is the real deal.
keep the grounds seperate from ECU to battery from Starter and battery, or poof.
by design.

[Nebraskan_Withapassion]

thank you for the diagram, the way it looks is that theres only one wire color that goes to ground. but it doesnt show a group of wires like i have or what its grounded too.. but im not goin to give up on this project.. im just goin to need a lil more help with it when i know more about the problems..

oh and another thing, where the coil wires up at it has a lil negative symbol but when i put a light tester to it it has power and the other one does too.. is this normal?

[Nebraskan_Withapassion]

I just came in from workin on her, i wired all the grounds back to a ground, the biggest one goin under the dizzy, and a few lil ones goin to the fire wall where the big wire runs to under the dizzy.. The engine seems to turn over alot easier and faster,

But the biggest thing i noticed was a clicking under the dash when i turn it over, im thinkin its the ecu or somethin like that, but the check engine light come on with the key turn'd on, i took a fuse out and than turned it over and it didnt click, but the check engine light or any of the dash lights came on.. What am i dealin with here?

[jtgh]

the coil has 12 on one side, the ECU grounds the other side for 5miliseconds at each firing point. so 99% of the time both sides are at 12, unless your RMP hits 5500, then the duth cycle is higher.
and so would the voltage.
in a points car (not) this wire would go to ground when points closed.
on this car the ECU runs the show.

best is to start with basics.
do you have spark. ?
yes , then check for Injector pulses.
This is a TBI car, throttle body single point injection, right?
sure. says efi on top you say.

you can actually see it prime the engine ,at each turn key on.
look down TB Horn, someone key on , then off,
see squirt? , that's the prime pulse. TBI are cool that way.
see it spray while cranking. ( but not if there is no spark)

no spark, then it gets more dicey.
no spark. you need to have a way to see if you have CAS pulses.
the bottom of the DIzzy has the cas sender (cmp called by suz)
it is a magnetic pulse generator.
it is infamous for breaking on 89 kicks.
it can be tested with an LED and power from 12v.

it is difficult to trouble shoot any EFI system with out tools.
Dig. multimeter, pressure guages, Noid lamp, and a scope.
one can use an LED to test the CAS.
it can be tested on the car or off the car.

if the cas passes, then the ECU might be bad. (bad grounds)

The trick to testing any CAS (crank angle sensor ,or cam angle sensor what ever) is this:

there are 3 pins,
not pin numbers
1- 12vdc (battery)
2- Ground.
3- signal out.
what you do is apply +12vdc to the proper pin.
then ground.
then with the SIG pin tie it to any LED cathode (short lead) and the other LED lead (long) to a 500-600 ohm resistor (about).
then tie the other end of said resistor to battery +

crank the engine and you will get 2 flashs per rev.
if you get that , you are good to go. on CAS.

on can do this by cutting the SIGNAL wire in half,
and applying the LED as above , saving having to wire the other 2 pins.
see photo below: next post

good link to learn stuff about EFI;
AA1Car Auto Repair Diagnosis Help

[jtgh]

safer for sensitive electronics.

My side kick , has a single pull down transistor for
the CAS, "and open collector circuit"
it must be pulled up , in order to see it switch.

I would not let current exceed 100ma, as a test lamp
would likely do, as this can blow that tiny transistor to smoke.
ignore my colored bands, 470 to 680 ohms is good.

use this circuit to test the cas.

cheers.

[Nebraskan_Withapassion]

Well i think m gettin somewhere now, I sprayed starting fluid into the intake, and it almost fired up, I pull'd the throttle to wide open to spray some into where ever it would go, not sure if it would go past the injector, But i noticed that the throttle cable was broke, so would this have anything to do with y it wont start??? I Was wondering if it was a saftey thing or somethin along the lines of the injector not recieveing any fuel because of it...


Btw it has alot of spark, not sure if the injector gets power yet, and my check engine light showd code 12 so i dont think its my ecu...

[jtgh]

great job.
this ecu is stupid as a rock. ( few monitors and most it has, are numb)
sorry,no, a broken throttle cable will not stop starting, unless it floods and if it floods,
you will never get the car into UNFLOOD mode,(WOT) with a broken cable.

spray start must start engine ! ( 1 second spray gives 3 seconds running , approx)
or
1:no spark ( or someone spun dizzy to some insane angle ,ergo: bad timing)
2: no cylinder compression or timing belt has slipped, causing very bad compression.

Injection can be killed by many things. ( not counting mechanical )
1: ECU thinks there is no spark ( it automatically kills injection)
2: Injector bad
3: no fuel pressure.
4: bad ECU Injector driver. [bad ecu]


events or starting:
ecu sees you turn key to start,
Ecu runs fuel pump for exactly 3 seconds and stops.
a pause and the ECU sends a prime signal to the TBI injector ( you can watch that)
you crank and the ECU sends nice fat 5mS pulses of fuel to TBI .
one spray per spark ( 4 sprays for every 2 crankshaft revolutions) ( watch it)
I am weak on 89's cuz no one has a schematic for just 89's,......
Ecu must see spark or no injection (safety rule)
the Coil has an ignitor, this ignitor pulses the Ignition coil, this pulse is measured as
feed back to the ECU , if it doest not get fed back, there will never be injection.
this feed back comes from that Noise supressor on the fire wall next to ignitor.
it wont go bad, it is just a 2k ohm resistor, but the the wiring can be bad.

PS : your insticts to go WOT to get it to start , was good.
use the instant start sparingly, 1 squirt at a time , only 1 second.
starting with fresh plugs can help greatly.
check for wet plugs. if wet , use Unflood mode.

your engine is free running so it is safe to play with it.

you are close to find the problem.

cheers