Odd starting problem

Ok - so the whole time since SITM,,,,no starting issue (replaced 3 relays and fixed Oil sending wire).

Today though, a no start after about a 45 min drive in the heat. We know a lot has been fixed or replaced, so we are now at the 14 pin connector near the front on the passenger side. Pulled off the cover, cleaned it up and put it back. Car started right up!

Later (in for Vac leaks in HVAC) it would not start again (we had started it a couple of times whie testing w. no issues).

Banged on the 14 pin connector box.....Started right up! So it looks like this may be the last piece of the VERY intermittent puzzle. (I hope)

I will take the cover off and carefully, one by one, pull each out and clean and get them to fit tighter in the round holes. I think that might be it. If not it might be the yellow wire in that connector that runs to the starter.

Stay tuned.....this is getting to be a LONG post... oh yeah BTW, we found 2 bad vacuum solenoids. Got 6 coming from 9Source on eBay for 11.00 each! We know how to test them, so we can choose the best of what we have vs the used ones from them. And YES I have A/C blowing now!!!! We just removed power from the bad solenoids until the others come in the mail.

Sayanara

Way to go. looks like you are confident that you found the no-start this time.

I hate fixing things when I am not sure and I am sure you did as well. That must have been great to tap on the 14 pin and have it fire up.

you could even see if new is available and if not, go buy some GM weather pack connectors and make your own.

Congrats

Working on it tomorrow while the wife is on vacation! Happened again today, took some De-oxit sprayed in there to get it to fire up. Might have to order a new housing as well, since I cracked an end off removing the cover today.

More later as it progresses.....

Update on the 14 pin connector work -

Turns out we had been pulling the top off of the male connector, I used a different tool and it happened to grab the gap between the male and female parts and it came right apart!

I cleaned the male connectors with a wire brush and de-oxit. Then I used a small knife tip to gently scrape the female holes, then sprayed de-oxit in there as well. Took a couple of pics the cleaned both up and put them back together. You do have to be careful if you pull the female (bottom part) off the anchor at the bottom to make it easier to work on, because when you do you expose the top of the connectors and they will possibly just fall out before you can get a pic snapped. So put your finger under it as you slide it out, then put a piece of painters tape on it to keep them in place while you clean the other part etc. It is a little trickier putting it back on the anchor but can be done, just take your time.

The car started before I did the work and after, a couple of times. So if it continues to have an intermittent no-start, it might be a bad place in the wire or the solder joint etc. and I will have to dig deeper.

2 pics below - 1 is the bottom of the female bottom section (did that sound dirty? and the other shows the top male 1/2 as well to the left, you can just see the ends of the connectors at the bottom. I did crack the end off of the male but I super-glued it back, seemed to fit ok and hold.

Attached files [img]media/attachments/5550=638-IMG_0002.jpg[/img] [img]media/attachments/5550=640-IMG_0004.jpg[/img]

The no start happened at the shop this past week while one of my mechs was replacing vacuum solenoids. He let it sit and it started up. So I am going to look at replacing the upper and lower 14 pin housing next. Although he couldn't see why we could not connect the wires directly. He thinks it is only there to modularize the wiring during the factory build. Hadn't thought of it that way. Interesting idea though.

Mike, the problem with a perminate connection at the 14 pin is the harness needs to come apart and laid out of the way when the enegine is removed. I think that even doing a TB or WP would be a pain if you could not move that harness of to the side.

It goes over the right/passenger timing cover, under the pass head, in front of the engine under the thermostat, through the drivers TB cover and down to the alternator.

Here it is resting on the balencer and running through the drivers side Timing belt cover