Harper

"The heavy red wire goes back through a fuse link to the silver relay where the battery is connected. There are a group of 4 ring terminals that share the post on the relay." The heavy (8 gauge) red wire, if it's spliced to the blue fusible link, goes to the alternator. It's not a spade connector in the stock condition, but may have been changed from a ring connector if a different alternator was installed. Just make sure you do have a wire running from the alternator "battery +" terminal to the stud on the starter relay before you decide to use it elsewhere. :D The other 8 gauge red wire on the stud goes to the positive battery terminal. You can always run an additional wire off the starter relay stud for your hood light (might want to inline fuse it) and it won't need to be nearly that heavy a gauge for the light.

find it here...... http://kowalko.com/comanchepaintcodes.html check your paint code on the plate on the firewall, driver's side, under the hood.....cross reference the code to the colors listed on the site above

RockAuto is showing them, but only a few left........http://www.rockauto.com/

Paul, if you are still having your start problem, and want to check the B+ latch relay that I mentioned earlier, and if you have A/C, then there's a relay in front of the windshield washer reservoir. It's the cooling fan relay, and can be swapped out with the B+ latch relay to see if that is the culprit. The air bypass that the idle speed stepper motor is mounted into, could be gooped up with oil or carbon, and could hang the pintle and keep it form moving freely. The motor itself can be tested, but requires a special switching tool and careful handling to insure that the pintle is not extended beyond 1/4". I would check the relay first. I mentioned these as possible culprits to start with because the throttle plate is completely closed at idle, and the bypass passage is the only way your engine gets any air during idle or start(unless of course you depress the accelerator pedal). May not solve the problem, but it costs nothing to check, and you've eliminated that as a possible cause.

So let me see if I have this right, based on your diagnosis, he should spend roughly $172 on apparatus, and just start checking everything that has to do with the functioning of an internal combustion engine. Ignore his own diagnosis of the rotor cap (OK), the presence of fuel pressure at the fuel rail (not measured, but pressure, nonetheless), the fact that by opening the thottle plate, it'll start right up (at least it did once), and ignore everybody else's diagnoses or suggestions of where to look for a possible problem, and follow your "expert" advice. I see that you've taken my suggestion about humility to heart...........

Whatever you say, young'un. Your first post took about the same tone about all the posts previous to yours, and they made sense, too. So before you tell someone to disregard everything everybody else has said in trying to help, try replacing the arrogance with a little humility.

16-18 psi (for the '90.......right out of the tech manual)

Shotgun approaches such as "simple things first, yada yada yada" aren't very useful, especially when you're barking up the wrong tree. As I understand it, you've already done most of what was suggested. Forget the ballast resistor bypass, it's a waste of your time. During starting, the ECU BYPASSES the fuel pump relay and the ballast resistor and supplies voltage to the fuel pump via the starter relay. So a bad ballast resistor would only come into play once the engine fired and you released the starter switch. As far as the compression check and fuel pressure check go, you know you have fuel pressure, if it's not up to specs, you'll have running and acceleration problems, but it'll likely start. Likewise with the compression check. Low compression will not affect your starting, only your performance. So don't take the "simple" shotgun approach, look for something that makes sense. College doesn't make you any smarter, even if it will get you a higher paying job.

Based on this comment, I think it's possible that you have either an idle speed stepper motor problem, or a bad B+ latch relay. The idle speed stepper motor is mounted next to the TPS on the throttle body, and it is controlled by the ECU. It moves in and out of a bypass passage that controls the idle speed of the engine. It is also the component that causes the engine to rev when first started, by being open at startup more than is necessary for a normal idle (follow me so far?) The B+ latch relay stays closed for several seconds when you shut off the engine, to allow the ECU to reposition the idle speed stepper motor for the next start. If the relay fails, then the engine is very hard to start without the extra air that would be provided by the properly positioned idle speed stepper motor. This is why, with a partial depression of the accelerator pedal, the engine starts as it should. Your depressing the accelerator substitutes for what the idle speed stepper motor would normally be doing at startup. The B+ latch relay is on the right inner fender, under the plastic shield. There are four relays in a row there. It is the second relay from the front.

His very first post said he has the delay on the MFS. If that's true, it might have been bypassed by someone already.

Good to hear, by golly! Glad ya got it fixed, Willy. Thanks for letting us know.

It's not grounded necessarily. An open circuit will peg the fuel gauge on full with the key on. Check reading between the two wires at the sender disconnect. Should read between 0 and 88 ohms (0 for Empty, 88 for full). If it's higher then 88 ohms, the sender's bad. If it reads good, then the problem is in the wiring to the gauge. or the gauge itself. You can check at the instrument cluster wiring plug, terminal 17 to ground for 0 to 88 ohms to test wire. If it's good there, guess you've got a bad gauge.

Well Willy, let us know what you did and how it goes.

Yes, you are correct. That's why I had answered that the ohms was important. The range of resistance that you and jimoshel have mentioned should work fine, a little brighter @250 ohms, or a little dimmer @400 ohms. The resistor's wattage is important, too. If your LEDs are pulling, say 5 watts total per array, then you could theoretically use a resistor with a minimum 5 watts. Practically speaking, using this absolute minimum power handlng capability (5 watts), expect it to fail after awhile. It would be better to use a resistor with a power handling capability twice what was necessary, which is why I suggested you use a 10 watt resistor. The 30 watt that I found on the website that I pointed out is a little overkill, but if properly protected, should never burn out due to the current draw of the LED array.

A lot of the newer super bright LED arrays used in vehicle lighting are more like 300-700 milliamps, which would put them around 3.5 to 8 watts or more. He didn't mention any of the LEDs being fried. I agree that the resistor could be in a range somewhere around 360 ohms, but was saying the ohms were important in response to his question after finding a .47 ohm resistor at RS. That would definitely not do the job.

Okay, just a quick check got me here... http://www.surplussales.com/resistors/W ... -3999.html They have a 360 ohm, 5% tolerance, 30 watt wirewound for $5/ea. (the first 360 ohm listed) Ought to do the job. I'd suggest that you encase it in heat-shrihk tubing , then seal the ends with silicone or something to help protect it from the elements.

Sorry, man.....we keep writing over each other. Yes the ohms are important. Give me a 1/2 hour or so to search for some sites on the net, and I'll get back to you.

Radio shack doesn't carry anywhere near the electrical components that it used to carry. They have nearly gotten completely out of the business of electronic components and concentrated on phones TVs boom boxes and such. I have a good freind who just retired from RS management, and they're hurtin' real bad with this economic downturn. Might have to go to Graylock online or some such place.

Looks to me that in this particular setup, the resistor (and yes, it's definitely a resistor, described correctly by jimoshel) is a voltage dropping resistor for dimming the LEDs when they are used as tail (you can dim an LED with a voltage dropping resistor, and the 360 ohms wouldn't drop it by very much in series with an LED), and the red wire gives them a shot of the full 12-14v via either the brake switch or the turn siganl flasher. reson46 did say that the brake/turn signals are still working, which to me indicates that the resistor is DOA. That resistor is a 5 watt, so if you can find one, get yourself a 10 watt. Eagle, if you have a parallel circuit, one side through the resistor and the other switched, you can have one wire controlling the same LEDs to make them fucntion as either tail or brake/signal lights. Then you'd need only the one ground.

Well, if it's as bad as you describe, I'd say you found at least 90% of your problem........

Mine is a 14mm head, and in my experience, nobody makes an oversize in that particular metric thread. I'm going to have to buy a new oil pan someday, because of the one and only time I let some jiffylube jerk crossthread it.

:hijack: Plz excuse the ol' grampa story, but I once had a problem exactly like the one described. Fan worked just fine but no air came out at all.....ended up opening the hood and pulling the blower.... found a mouse had built himself a home in there......stuffed the sucker full of pink fiberglass insulation it had picked up elsewhere in the building. I was driving an 18 wheeler at the time, and was gone a lot, so the Manche wasn't getting much use. But it was always closed up, windows and all. I even had to run a wire down the condensation drain tube to get all the insulation out of there. Never could figure out how the little bugger got in...... :hmm:

Gee, I think I hear a "nice rumble" now............. :rotf:

I didn't realize that the '92 MX had a non-CAD axle, so that kinda blows my theory. I was thinking the hub bolts loosened, and the axle shaft moved out, causing the intermediate shaft pin to pull out of the axle shaft bushing, pushing the intermediate shaft into the diifferential as in your picture. There is a C-clip in the diff on the intermediate shaft of a CAD axle, but I don't know about the non-CAD.

Chris, I’ve been poring over this half the evening, and going over the diagrams in my factory manual, and I’ll be darned if I can figure out any possible way for the PS axle to move out of the axle shaft unless the bearing carrier has somehow been pushed out of the steering knuckle bore. In your original post on this thread, you indicated that you had changed out the hub at some point. Is it possible that the three bolts that hold the rotor backing plate and hub bearing carrier to the steering knuckle have come loose? I just don’t see how the axle shaft could move out otherwise, even with a snapped intermediate shaft. Mike