# '86 cabriolet will not start



## barraketh (Mar 30, 2007)

I have a 1986 cabriolet that stubbornly resists all my efforts to fix it, and if you guys can't help me, I'm sending the thrice-damned thing to the crusher.
*calms.
Anyway, the deal is this. I was driving it one day last winter and suddenly, for no apparent reason, it _stopped running_.
We trailered it home, I got another car, and I've spent the past year trying to fix it.
When you turn the key, the starter motor goes and it sounds like it's going to start, but it never turns over. The starter motor runs for as long as you hold the key, but the engine will never start.
The cylinders get plenty of fuel, and we've tested the electrical flow all the way from the battery through the ignition coil and the cap and rotor. 
The power flow is good through the rotor _when the cap is off_, but when you clip the cap on, the spark plugs do not spark.
I have replaced the following:
Plugs, (though they're fouled now from trying to start it, they *did* work when I got them.)
Wires, 
Cap, 
Rotor,
Ignition Coil,
Ignition Control Module, 
and Computer.
I am





















going out of my mind. I've replaced _everything_. What the _hell_ is wrong with this car?
Thank you for your feedback,
-Derek.


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## Andromeda451 (Jan 6, 2006)

*Re: '86 cabriolet will not start (barraketh)*

Mr. B,
Assuming that the engine does not get spark even though you've replaced "most" of it I would bite the bullet and replace the distributor itself. The cap being off gets spark, installing the cap causes the spark to fail. This tells me the compression of the distributor shaft by the cap is shifting the reluctor away from the Hall sensor just enough to kill the pickup of a valid magnetic pulse. Bushing wear in the distributor may be the culprit. The fact the unit is an '89 indicates it probably has lots of miles on it so this points to wear again. 
If you do have valid, good quality spark change the fuel injectors out. They do have a finite life (305Kmiles on my Fox) and when they wear out the failure mode seems to be either stop injecting completely or open up and dump fuel into the intakes.
Good Luck,
Andromeda451


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