ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Suzuki 4x4 Forum => Topic started by: jaminb on September 27, 2011, 07:07:58 PM
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I recently bought a 1990 samurai, it will crank all day long and gets tons of fuel. But the coil will not fire the spark. The coil has battery voltage going to it, but will not send spark to the spark plugs. The wiring has been hacked up a little, but the coil has a brown with white tracer going to the negative, and black with white tracer going to the positive side. So if some one could tell me the color wires that go to the coil both positive and negitve sides, as well as anything else i should look into that would be great!
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The coil wire colors sound right.
It is probably the ECM (computer). EFI samurai ECMs are known for going bad and causing a loss of spark. If you happen to know of a known good 90-95 samurai ECM you can swap in, I'd try that, to see if it is an ECM problem. If you don't have access to a samurai ECM, then I'd pull yours out and take the cover off and look at the circuit board under and around the capacitors (the capacitors you are looking for will be soda can shaped....one will be in the corner of the board and the other near the middle). If it looks like they have leaked onto the board, then it is a good bet that the ECM is bad and either needs fixed or replaced.
The coil or the electrical parts inside the distributor could be bad too. But they don't fail as commonly as the ECM.
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I already tried replacing the coil, and still had the same issue. I pulled the ECM and cracked it open, i dont see any noticble leaking going on. Some film around the capcitors but nothing the looks like it would keep it from working.
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If you have some "film" on the board around the caps, then that means they are leaking and need to be replaced. Sometimes the leaking damages the board and that is why the ECM doesn't work right; other times it is the caps themselves that stop working and sometimes it is both.
There is no way to tell if the caps are good by "looking" at them. If they are leaking, they need replaced. So replace them.
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If you have some "film" on the board around the caps, then that means they are leaking and need to be replaced. Sometimes the leaking damages the board and that is why the ECM doesn't work right; other times it is the caps themselves that stop working and sometimes it is both.
There is no way to tell if the caps are good by "looking" at them. If they are leaking, they need replaced. So replace them.
Well spoken.
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Is there a write up or something so that I can do it my self? My buddy is an electrical engineer and builds computers on the side so I am sure he could take care of the soldering stuff.
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Is there a write up or something so that I can do it my self? My buddy is an electrical engineer and builds computers on the side so I am sure he could take care of the soldering stuff.
None that I know of. You just need to have the old caps removed (just the round electrolytic caps) and replaced with new caps of equal values. The traces around the caps also need to be checked for continuity, to make sure the leaking caps didn't damage them and create an open.
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the ones that look like small pop cans?
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the ones that look like small pop cans?
That is what I said.
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The link is for Track/Kicks but you may find applicable.
http://www.kick-fix.com/ECU/ECU.html (http://www.kick-fix.com/ECU/ECU.html)
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The link is for Track/Kicks but you may find applicable.
[url]http://www.kick-fix.com/ECU/ECU.html[/url] ([url]http://www.kick-fix.com/ECU/ECU.html[/url])
That gives you the basic idea of what needs to be done.
You will need to look at your caps and check their values, as they are not necessarily going to be the same as the trackick ones. And I don't recall what the samurai ones are, off the top of my head.
In my experience, just replacing the caps fixes about 40% of them; replacing the caps and repairing a few of the board traces fixes about 59% more; and there are about 1% that are not fixable.
Hopefully, yours fall into the first 2 categories.
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Is there a write up ... so that I can do it myself?
My buddy ...could take care of the soldering stuff.
http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=231 (http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=231)
also at:
http://www.billjohn.com/articles/others/ecm/ecmfix.htm (http://www.billjohn.com/articles/others/ecm/ecmfix.htm)
The ECM manufacturer installed a bad batch of capacitors. All Samurai ECM's will suffer from this problem sooner or later. At work, we use only Nichicon or United Chemi-Con. We avoid Rubycon capacitors because they could never pass the standard life test.
The electrolyte (the internal liquid that leaks) is both corrosive and toxic, and eats up the board and copper traces. Be sure to use a ground/wrist strap, and replace the board's conformal coating around the new parts. Replacement ECM's are very hard-to-find and expensive. Of course, a (used) replacement ECM would need the cap fix as well.
This is a very popular topic and much information/discussion has been posted over the years. You can learn a lot by searching. The hardest part is separating opinion from fact.
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Is there a write up ... so that I can do it myself?
My buddy ...could take care of the soldering stuff.
[url]http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=231[/url] ([url]http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=231[/url])
also at:
[url]http://www.billjohn.com/articles/others/ecm/ecmfix.htm[/url] ([url]http://www.billjohn.com/articles/others/ecm/ecmfix.htm[/url])
The ECM manufacturer installed a bad batch of capacitors. All Samurai ECM's will suffer from this problem sooner or later. At work, we use only Nichicon or United Chemi-Con. We avoid Rubycon capacitors because they could never pass the standard life test.
The electrolyte (the internal liquid that leaks) is both corrosive and toxic, and eats up the board and copper traces. Be sure to use a ground/wrist strap, and replace the board's conformal coating around the new parts. Replacement ECM's are very hard-to-find and expensive. Of course, a (used) replacement ECM would need the cap fix as well.
This is a very popular topic and much information/discussion has been posted over the years. You can learn a lot by searching. The hardest part is separating opinion from fact.
Would you recommend trying to replace the ignitor, and pick up to see if they fix the problem first? Or just go right to the ecm and try thay?
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Is there a write up ... so that I can do it myself?
My buddy ...could take care of the soldering stuff.
[url]http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=231[/url] ([url]http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=231[/url])
also at:
[url]http://www.billjohn.com/articles/others/ecm/ecmfix.htm[/url] ([url]http://www.billjohn.com/articles/others/ecm/ecmfix.htm[/url])
The ECM manufacturer installed a bad batch of capacitors. All Samurai ECM's will suffer from this problem sooner or later. At work, we use only Nichicon or United Chemi-Con. We avoid Rubycon capacitors because they could never pass the standard life test.
The electrolyte (the internal liquid that leaks) is both corrosive and toxic, and eats up the board and copper traces. Be sure to use a ground/wrist strap, and replace the board's conformal coating around the new parts. Replacement ECM's are very hard-to-find and expensive. Of course, a (used) replacement ECM would need the cap fix as well.
This is a very popular topic and much information/discussion has been posted over the years. You can learn a lot by searching. The hardest part is separating opinion from fact.
Would you recommend trying to replace the ignitor, and pick up to see if they fix the problem first? Or just go right to the ecm and try thay?
The caps in the ECM need to be replaced, so I'd do that first, before I would spend 100s of $$$ on the ignitor and pickup.
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I bought an 88 sami off a guy for $400 who had put a head gasket on and couldn't get spark at the plug afterword. The only thing wrong was the distributor was out 180. I'd find out if it just quit getting spark or had any engine work done prior to you getting it
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I have an '86 that am having the same issue. Cranks but no spark. I thought of my dist being 180 out cuz of what I read on here, and the number one plug wire IS 180 oppostite from where my previous engine was. But, if I pull the coil wire out of the distributer cap, to check spark, I get nothing. Wouldn't the coil still spark? I put a volt meter on the plug that goes to the distributer wires, I have power there, but no juice at the pos and neg side of coil. Any thoughts?
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bump...