If you are not willing to pull the opti off and see if it is indexed correctly, you cannot rule that out. Many people crank the engine up before putting the water pump on, just to be sure the opti is on right. Confirming your opti harness is on good and there is no corrosion present is something you could do.

 

If there are no other explanations for the car's behavior, we will remove the Opti to verify the indexing. However, the Opti installed easily in our case and did not require any effort to seat it against the timing cover.
Our Opti harness is new (from Casper's).
Is there any other explanation for the car running like it is other than an improperly indexed Opti?

 

I would try the old harness before tearing it all apart first.
If that is not it then the new opti could be defective.
I am in the same boat as you are good luck and tell us the outcome.

 

can you see any cranking rpm with a scan tool when trying to crank it ? this will help tell you if the the opti is working or not

 

I mentioned this earlier, the low-resolution pulse generated within the Opti. Until you have verified the two pulses from the Opti (high & low), you really don't know if the optical module is working.

WD

 

Where did you get the new opti from? Assuming the opti is indexed correctly, sounds to me like you have a "defective" opti. Since the car still started when the old opti was on, and now won't start with the new opti on, it can only really be the new opti installed on the car. Once again, assuming installation was performed correctly and your wires are all in the right places. I had just about the same problem as you, misfire in cylinder number 7 and running real sluggish. I replaced plugs wires and the whole opti distributer. Car wouldn't start witht he new opti in but would start with the old opti in. I've sent the old one back for a new 3 times before i gave up and just ordered an MSD cap and rotor for my current distirbuter. When i brought the new opti to my mechanic to check out we took it apart and the timing was way off, which explains why the car wouldn't start. So I would double check your wires to make sure they aren't going to the wrong cylinders, then i'd troubleshoot the actual opti itself.

 

As Shoebox has pointed out, it is "always best" to do a short start/run test after installing the Opti and prior to installing the water pump, coolant and all the other stuff.

Once again, at this point you "need to check" for the high and low-resolution pulses with a scanner. Then if they're present, it must be an indexing issue. Again, the new Opti could be bad.

WD

 

We haven't added coolant yet, so we hope to minimize the amount of coolant that spills on the new Opti when we remove the water pump.

As far as checking for the high and low resolution signals from the Opti...What type of scanner is required? Where can we find one?

Thank you for your help,
Rick

 

Check to see if you have a signal from the PCM to the ICM on the white wire. While someone cranks it over, check the white wire to ground for 1-4 volts on the AC scale. If that's there, the problem is between the ICM and the coil.

2 of the wires go from the ICM to the coil. With KOEO, those 2 wires have 12 volts on them. Find them and be sure they have 12 volts with the key on. One of the other 2 wires left goes to ground. Find it and confirm it goes to ground. The last wire left is the one that carries the control signal. It will test out as I said on the AC scale when someone cranks it with 1 to 4 volts AC.

Also measure the resistance of the wires on the opti harness.

 

http://shbox.com/1/95_ign_system_schematic.jpg

Disconnect the ICM connector. Leave the coil connected. Turn KOEO. Check for dc voltage at harness terminal "A" to ground and and also "D" to ground. You should get 10v dc or more on both terminals.

If you get no voltage then its the coil or ignition fuse.

If you have good voltage, switch the meter to AC and connect the leads to terminal "B" and ground. Watch the metre while someone cranks the engine. You should see between 1 and 4 VAC. If you don't see the proper ac voltage the problem could be the optispark, the harness to the optispark, the PCM or any of the wiring in between.

 

any kind of scanner that will show you data from the computer will work , but one of those little code readers dont do that .

 

*subscribing*

I had the exact same problem on Saturday night. We installed a new LT1 in a friends 94 and converted it over to a 95+ opti in the process. The car ran fine (ignition wise anyways) with the old motor, and we reused all the original ignition parts (coil, control module) except, of course, for the new Delco 95+ opti and a caspers opti harness for the conversion...both of which were brand new. Now we mysteriously have no spark

 

I replaced my opti last night and am having the same exact problem. I am getting injector pulses and I've verified that I am getting spark, but I still have a no-start. I'm going to pull the opti back off this afternoon and try to piece together a working unit from the three opti's I have sitting in my garage. I hate to say it, but if you've got injector pulse and spark, you are at least getting a low-res pulse and I would say your opti is bad.

 

Thank god for shoebox

I was looking around on shoebox's site for some help on this, I know for sure now that my problem is either the opti itself, or the Casper's electronics opti harness that we used to convert this car...So I'm gonna pull the original opti harness off of my car and try it. I'll report back if it solves the problem. Has anyone ever had any problems out of those Casper's harness's??

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#opti_test

 

We installed the Casper's harness on our car some time ago in an attempt to cure a no-start-when-wet problem. We noticed no change.