1996 KJ Ford Laser 1.6 will crank only No start

[Darren@63]

Went to start car, will only crank but won't start. So far have checked battery and fuses, tested ok. Replaced distributor and have power at 7 pin plug on distributor. Replaced fuel pump (and have power at fuel pump plug) and replaced fuel filter as fuel line dirty between the two, still won't start. Have checked the fuel pump regulator and relay also seem ok. Can the knock control be an issue not sure how to check this one, it is under the bonnet and is a small black box 40 x 40ml bolted to mudguard near the air cleaner which has a plug. Running out of ideas, can anyone suggest something I may have missed.

[Franco Cozzo]

Get a big flat blade screwdriver with an acetate handle, put the head hard up against the body of the fuel injectors, put your ear on the end of the handle, have someone crank it and see if you can hear the solenoid in the injectors clicking through the handle of the screwdriver.

Confirm for fuel injector pulse with an LED test light/circuit tester (must be LED)

If its a single lead test light, connect the tail to positive terminal on battery and probe the earth wires on the injectors, the light should flicker if you have injector pulse while cranking.

If its a circuit tester which can show earth and positive, it should have a positive and negative terminal to connect to the battery, you can just probe the injector wires and it will show you either positive or earth, the earth will be the one that flickers.

You should have an ignition positive on one wire of the fuel injectors, the one which will determine if they're firing is the earth as that's what the ECU controls.

Usually these 1990s setups will have a CKP in the distributor, it uses this to determine engine position, it uses this to control fuel injection and spark, if you have no CKP you won't have injector pulse.

Does it have spark?

[Darren@63]

Hi Franco thanks for your feedback. I have just completed the tests you suggested.

All injectors were found to be clicking after running the screwdriver test.

I then ran the LED test light on each of the injector plugs, the white/blue stripe wires tested positive with the ignition key turned on. The yellow/red stripe wires did not give a pulse whilst cranking.

I do not have spark?

As I mentioned before my distributor is brand new, how would I test for a CKP?

Any further help would be appreciated.

Again thanks for your time.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Darren@63

Hi Franco thanks for your feedback. I have just completed the tests you suggested.

All injectors were found to be clicking after running the screwdriver test.

I then ran the LED test light on each of the injector plugs, the white/blue stripe wires tested positive with the ignition key turned on. The yellow/red stripe wires did not give a pulse whilst cranking.

I do not have spark?

As I mentioned before my distributor is brand new, how would I test for a CKP?

Any further help would be appreciated.

Again thanks for your time.

The white/blue wire will be your ignition positive,

The yellow/red wire will be the earth which is controlled by the ECU, you'll need to change the setup your test light to check for earth when doing this test - test light tail to battery positive, not on the battery negative.

If the solenoids are clicking in the injectors, you'll have injector pulse, they won't fire/click without that ECU controlled earth.

Ghetto way of checking spark, pull a spark plug lead off, jam a long philips screwdriver up inside of the plug wire where the spark plug would usually connect, then the shaft of the screwdriver that's exposed, put it close to something that's metal on the engine like the intake manifold (NOT NEAR ANY SENSORS) - about 1-2mm away and crank the engine, see if you have spark jumping from the screwdriver shaft to the intake manifold across the small gap.

Make sure you don't touch the shaft of the screwdriver or you'll get a nasty surprise

You haven't got the distributor in the engine 180 degrees out by any chance?

CKP needs to be checked with an oscilloscope to see a waveform, given its new its probably not going to be an issue,

If you have injector pulse and no spark, next thing to check is an ignition module, it might be external to the coil, is there an electric module going from the distributor to the coil or in that area?

The ignition module may be built into the distributor though if its got 7 wires,

The only cars I have with distributors have external ignition modules (my dizzy only has 3x wires), they are located next to the ignition coil on my car:

I've marked the ignition module and ignition transistor with yellow arrows pointing to them to give you an idea what they may look like and where they can be located (if they exist externally to the dizzy, having 7 wires means it could be internal).



Make sure the distributor is installed in the correct position and its not 180 degrees out.

[Darren@63]

Hi Franco

Did the screwdriver test against manifold but definitely no spark.

The distributor I have has a seven pin plug and although I replaced it I did place it back into the car the same way however the fault did not change after replacing it.

I can see that there is a "knock control" bolted near the air cleaner under the bonnet which has a five pin plug attached to a 40 x 40 x 15ml small black box.

Unfortunately I've no luck uploading any photos for you to view.

[Franco Cozzo]

You mention 'knock control' - that could be the ignition module, I don't think a 1990s Ford Laser would have knock sensors, if it did they would be on the engine block.