MooreBoost

when driving my car will randomly die. i can smell fuel so i checked spark next. no spark. replaced coil and speed/ref sensors. car still dies and doesnt want to start back up. if i kick the dme while trying to crank the car will start. i pulled the dme and everything looked ok.

do i have a bad ground or is my dme bad?

lee101315

Its hard to say, I would double check all of the grounds, and especially make sure the ref sensor harness is in good shape. I had a similar problem once, and moving the computer around solved it sometimes. You will not believe what it was. I opened the harness for the ref sensors to check for a short, and sure enough, about two inches from the DME plug, I found the yellow wire of 1 ref sensor touching the shielding ground (it was a tiny exposure in the wire, and ONE strand was touching ). I repaired that section of the harness, and that solved it.

blown 944

you may want to dbl check the ref/speed sensors and gap.

i had problem when the car was warm either sun or engine temp very similiar and i would do the same thing you are (kicking) and it would start.

Spidey944

If you can, swap the DME with a fellow CO 'lister I know theres a few on here.

MooreBoost

the connector on the BG sensor has a tear in it and is leaving wires exposed. i dont see any wires touching eath other but i put some liquid tape on it and waiting on it to dry. if this doesnt fix it ill try swaping the dme with a friends.

quinnfiske

My car acted like yours and it was the DME. These things have been mounted under the floor for 20 years and many have developed tiny cracks in solder joints from the vibration. There is a large transistor that supplies a timing signal to the coil that is often the culprit. The fix is to hit the joints with a soldering iron. This is called reflow in the electronics biz.

MooreBoost

my car seems a lot better after repairing the harness. it still died on me twice this morning but it was easier to start after it died. im going to check the repair i made yesterday and if it looks ok, then i guess i will be replacing a capacitor in the dme.

sebastian944

you remember the arcade machines from 1986? They've all been rebuilt by now i'm sure of it. i would replace the whole DME. I plan to do mine sometime soon.

MooreBoost

i have the dme apart right now and all of the solder joints look ok. the big capacitor has a few little cracks on the caseing but it looks ok. i did notice the two little screws with with the 5.5 nuts that hold down the pins for the connector are loose. are these little screws a grounding point?

quinnfiske

Keep in mind that the cracks in solder joints are so small as to be virtually invisible. You need a very high powered microscope to see them. I would reflow at least the joints on the big transistors. There are places that test/repair these units. Systems Consulting did mine. They are good and a site sponsor.

MooreBoost

i am looking at them with a microscope. im going to hit them with the soldering pen anyways

MooreBoost

if i had 250 i would replace it.

MooreBoost

is the needle supose to jump alot or bounce around 100 rpms when testing for ref/spd sensor?

MooreBoost

i bought a new dme and my klr has a stage 2 autothority chip. is there a chip i need to take out of my old dme and put in my new one?

quinnfiske

I have never messed around with aftermarket chips, but it seems logical that the one in the DME should match the KLR.