Electrical Problems on 96 Grand AM

[Ares78]

OK guys (girls), I've been having some major problems on my 96 Grand Am GT and hopefully someone out there can give me some ideas.

First of all, all of these problems I have had started in June (yes, been battling problems for THAT long). It started out with the check engine light coming on and the car not wanting to shift out of first gear. A changeout of the throttle position sensor fixed that little problem. Then I had a hesitation problem. The car would stall going into passing gear, would stall when idle, and would stall when accelerating from a dead stop. In turn, I replaced the spark plugs, the spark plug boots, the ignition housing assembly, the ignition coils, the coil module, the fuel filter (the fuel pump was/is fine), and even the fuel pressure regulator, as of four weeks ago, I still had a slight hesitation after replacing all of this.

Then I started getting long crank times when the engine was cold, also the engine was hard to crank when it was recovering from the stalls as mentioned above, it got to the point where the car was near impossible to drive because of fear of getting out on a busy road and then stall and wouldn't crank over. It got its worst about three weeks ago when it stalled and never did turn back over. Since then I might have got the engine running for a good minute or two, but then it quits just as quick as it started. The engine turns, cranks, but won't start. I even took the car to a mechanic (by tow truck) and they could not figure out what was wrong, they even replaced the computer on it, thinking that might have been the problem, but it still won't start. My guess is that it might be a loose wire or connection somewhere, but I don't know at this point anymore. I've put in almost $2k in parts, repairs, and mechanics (thankfully the mechanic didn't charge me on the computer replacement because he was just guessing at that point as well). The point is, I've put way too much time in the car and money, and its still not working.

I'm already looking into a used car in the meantime as I cannot tolerate not having a car, public transportation is too costly and unreliable to constantly use, but I do want to try to get the Grand Am running again to use either for a backup car or to get a decent trade-in on. Any ideas, I don't care how off the wall, will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[GMMerlin]

Where are you people finding these mechanics that can't diagnos problems and simply guess at repairs?

First thing you need to determine is what is missing from the fuel,spark, air combination.
We will assume that you have air because you are breathing.....
Next is fuel and spark.
Pull a plugwire off and and see if spark jumps out when you spin the engine over.
Next press the fuel pressure port shrader valve and see if you have some fuel pressure.
These are 2 simple things you can do to determine what system is at fault and then we can go from there.

[Ares78]

Originally Posted by GMMerlin

Where are you people finding these mechanics that can't diagnos problems and simply guess at repairs?

First thing you need to determine is what is missing from the fuel,spark, air combination.
We will assume that you have air because you are breathing.....
Next is fuel and spark.
Pull a plugwire off and and see if spark jumps out when you spin the engine over.
Next press the fuel pressure port shrader valve and see if you have some fuel pressure.
These are 2 simple things you can do to determine what system is at fault and then we can go from there.

Sorry about the delay in reply, I just now today had a chance to go out and work with the car (besides I just got it back from the 5th repairman to look at it a few days ago)

Anyways, I checked it out and none of the spark plugs are getting any spark, so it looks to be the problem. However, the ignition module checks out fine, spark plugs and the wireset were recently replaced, the igniton coils ohmed out okay, and the housing assembly has a small burn spot, but its not burned all the way through, so I doubt it could be that. Also the connector to the module is getting voltage, any ideas on where to go next?

[Ares78]

Well just an update on the situation if anyone can help me out...

I took the afternoon to change out the crankshaft sensor (That was a pain in the rear to get to) and it still won't start...the engine just isn't getting a spark from the plugs anywhere, and everything that I can see is fine as far as the ignition system goes, because mainly everything has been replaced...any suggestions would be extremely helpful at this point.

btw, the camshaft sensor was replaced a while back as well