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For the Archives...

At the car wash I degreased a 1.8l sohc engine (132K)90' Mazda Protege.
It would not start. After sitting for hours, had it towed home. Over several
days of sputtering, no start, and stalling in my driveway and street. Seeing
spark at secondary of coil inconsistant. Seeing one initial spark to ground at
beginning of crank, then another at the end of the crank cycle.


Following steps used to resolve No start and stalling condition......

1. Dried out the distributor best i could, it had water in it. Took it apart as far as
practical. Dried it out several times. Replaced cap and rotor with new. Removed
broken seal surrounding base of the ECM connection on the body of the
Distributor. I think it may have helped dry it out. Had to remove a small plate
surrounding the connector to get to it.

2. Using canned air, dried out all connecters in the engine compartment that could
be opened. I simply took the battery compartment out and started opening
connectors looking for water.

3. Replaced condensor mounted near the igniter. I think it may have been
damaged during troubleshooting or hard starting when wet. Done after several
nice days of 60f weather.

4. Cleaned all the Ground connection I could get a wrench on, at firewall below
battery, below the igniter bracket, two white conn. multi-grounds, even cleaned
the bracket that the coil and igniter are mounted on, to insure a good ground.
Cleaned the gound point at the distributor and engine block. This time after
nothing for many days it started and ran for 10 minutes and then stalled out.
Steps 3 and 4 done together.

5. Replaced all plug wires (original) with new set. This has fixed it. Runs
great now.

6. Follow up to seal the ECM connector on the Distributor.

This all took place over a fourteen day period. One may think that simply
letting it sit and dry on its on would have fixed it. Possibly. But I feel
that if I had done that it would still be dead in my driveway today.

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The car is still running great. Ran through a tank of gas and
got 29mpg. I suppose that is OK. I sealed the connector going
to the Distributor with Super Blue Silicone from VersaChem good to
600f tube says. I still need a new gasket or O-ring for the distributor
cap.
I should mention an additional step I did when I resolved
the stalling and starting probelm. I tightened all the air intake
hose clamps, from the Air filter to the Trottle body. In hind site
this could have been important.

"Goopy" mentioned tightening the Air Intake tube in another thread.
Therefore add this to my above list of steps to resolve.


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