OK I took the front of the car completely apart and took the opti completely off. There is only 1 way that the splined gear will go into the engine. It has a different gear on one side, so I am going to say the new opti crapped out on me!! I am going to go where I got it back in August and demand an exchange. I have a really really strong feeling that this is what it is. I am so tired of messing, this car. I am so glad that I drive a dodge and this is my girlfriends car :-) I don't have to worry about crappy designs and the chevy way of impossible to work on a car (ex. plugs and wires). Well I am going to try that on monday, the exchange, and see if that fixes it. I will keep you posted.

 

That is what it was, I put on the 2nd new opti and the car fired right up. I also had to finish unclogging the pipes from where the cat broke up when the first one quit. So now it is back on the road and I have done my victory doughnuts in the parking lot at work :-)

 

mines still not running, even after i installed a new opti, i think my motor was flooded out good from trying to start it so much with no spark so i am in the process of putting new plugs in. i took the old ones out they look pretty fouled. i hope this is the reason it is still not starting. it sounds like it fires blows a little smoke and backfires out the intake. i checked all the wires and i made sure they are plugged right. i hope it is just the plugs

 

Having the same exact problem as described but on the third Opti (original plus 2 new ones). While watching the crankpulley when the motor backfires through the intake after trying to start it, the motor is actually running backwards!

Double and triple checked all the wires and getting spark at the plug close to when it should be firing (finger over sparkplug hole while turning over the motor, and it is sparking on the compression stroke) The plugs are wet with gas but still spark when testing them in the current condition.

It is almost like the timing is way to advanced ?????

 

yep thats the same exact deal im having im puzzled. theres only one way for the opti to go on too im pretty sure its on there right. who knows i am gunna have someone else check it out, and if they cant figure it out either im prob gunna go ahead and get the delteq. by the way i did put new plat plugs in, it didnt make a difference, still does the same stuff.

 

We did finally get it running!
It ended up being the coil. The reason we did not find it sooner is the *working car* we tested the coil on had the MSD ignition on it which bypassed some of the coils functions. Kicking ourselves in the a** over this one as if we would have taken the working coil and put it on the broken car it would have started days ago. Looks like our procedure of testing parts between cars has just been revised to included testing the parts on both cars.

The puzzling thing is it had a decent spark (not strong enough I suppose) and still don't quite understand why the car would try to run backwards once you released the starter?

Oh well, a new Opti, Plugs, Wires and Coil (ofcourse)and it is good to go. Just a very expensive time consuming tune up