car died and wont restart

40

Asked by stev6901 Aug 23, 2012 at 07:29 PM about the 1988 Dodge Omni

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

'88 dodge omni 2.2 auto trans drove fine all day with a long drive and several short trips.  then in my driveway it started backed out and died wont restart.  the started engages, but engine wont catch.  oil light is on, but i checked all fluids and everything is good, or if low, brought it to good levels.   checked the plugs and filters, everything looks fine and is getting fuel.  any suggestions?

2 Answers

235

Does the tachometer move or 'flutter' while cranking? If not I would bet money the hall effect pick up coil has failed, and when it does so, it creates a no spark, no start condition. It's located in the distributor, under the cap and rotor. It sends a sine wave signal to the SMEC to determine cylinder position and when to fire the fuel injector. (An early form of a crankshaft position sensor.) The item in question is pictured here: http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/supermechanic/2009-07-28_192625_pick_up.gif. You can grab a replacement from a local wrecking yard or purchase a new aftermarket one from AutoZone, etc. (Although I have found the aftermarket ones don't last as long as the original Mopar units.) Also, when you remove it, check the metal reluctor wheel that spins below the pick up coil. The four plastic 'blobs' that hold down the wheel often break and cause the reluctor wheel to flop around and give an inaccurate signal (sometimes even flopping around enough to physically hit the sensor!). These fail every now and then, and are pretty common, so much so that I carry a spare pick up coil in the glove box, along with a phillips screw driver to make road-side repair easy. You can read more about the sensor here: http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes/sensors/hall-effect.html Cheers, TheCanadian

2 people found this helpful.
40

Would that be the issue with no spark out of ignition coil? Test light is cold on coil pos/ neg, currently has new battery, new coil, new asd relay, new starter but cranks no start

4 people found this helpful.

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  • #1
    TheCanadian007
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  • #2
    Chris McGee
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    stev6901
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