SolReaver

Check for fuel pump relay. Swap out with the known good spare that all owners should have with them at all times.

In Houston. PM if you get into trouble. I am a mechanic.

techartisan

Yeah I swapped both dme relay and dme in the early stages of diagnosis as indicated in my early posts.
Thanks though I'll keep you in mind

techartisan

My own research after the comment in question showed this to be a very common thread of inquiry across automotive forums. Apparently this procedure was quite common before the advent of every button, bell, whistle, and bulb having a microcontroller associated with its function. Im not worried that Ive caused damage with this test as this DME is running the same as my spares but...

Ill drop the procedure from my routine.

while Ive depleted charge a couple of time when it was in this "fault state" trying to coax a stumble to a start.....when Ive had it running it sits that way for 15 minutes or so before I kill the engine and retry.....

Im about to dig out the ignition switch.....Im really thinking thats where the gremlin lives....

techartisan

The root of this evil??



Perhaps Ive found the problem....the engagement slot of the switch is wildly out of its original rectangular shape...Theres a nasty crack in the housing.....and the OHMeter has no consistency from one turn to the next across 30/50.

Hopefully this will be the end of this issue.

944Ross

That could be the problem, all right!

techartisan

Well swapped out the switch. Cleaned every contact of the turn/wiper assembly. Cleaned up the horn contacts....


Still no manual horn actuation...no biggie.

Started up instantly on first try.....battery light was on...went out after a few moments....so I'm not entirely convinced all is well.

mystery horn on the third startup since reassembly though lol go figure.....

R turn signal previously required a slight touch as they wouldn't flash in the fully signalled position.....the cleanup fixed that.

I swapped my speedo cable while I was in there...nice to not have to speedo by phone app

I'm not sure if the gremlins gone....since it isn't an "all the time" issue ill just have to wait and see.

I still need to swing by napa and have them check the battery....its only 2yrs out of 6 on the warranty...so that shouldn't be an issue either way.

Perculator00

I know this is old. But I am too having these hard starts. The motor is turning but no fire up. And it only happens sometimes. I get the feeling it even happens on the "sometimes" basis especially when its hot out and the car has sat for more than a few hours, but this could honestly have nothing to do with it.

Right now I have the distributor cap/rotor/ignition switch out. I was planning on putting a new cap/rotor/and wire plugs hoping my hard start problem would be solved, but then I thought about the Ignition Switch. A mechanic I know told me the ignition switch hardly ever goes bad and my issue is probably not that. Your thread has got me thinking it may be my switch after seeing that pic of yours.

Any advice/help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Butters944

Ignition switches DO go bad. Mine had a huge crack in it, causing, when the car was on, if I bumped the key, the radio would turn off. Going over bumps and turning on the turn signal also caused the radio to go freaky. Luckily my problem was just the radio, nothing worse... Ignition switch fixed it, and a fresh
switch gave the key-turning a smooth and fresh feel