96 Century not sparking after a rebuild

[gmoneygaryb]

Hey everyone,

I just pulled apart the top of my buick to replace the Intake Manifold Gasket. Well I got it all back together but it's not firing up. The coil was perfectly fine before the tear-down, but now it's not getting any spark.

The confusing thing is I don't have any idea how the coil gets it's power!! It has the regular 6 nodes that go to the plug wires/plugs, but there's not one that goes into it. There are 3 other plugs on it but none of those wires are bigger than an 8 or 10 guage, nowhere near big enough to supply the coil with power(or so I was told by an electrician).

Well I know it's getting gas and air, I just can't figure out why it doesn't create a spark. The coil was 100% plugged in but it just wasn't doing anything. The coil is a square box with the 6 plug wires coming out of it, one plug on the passenger side and two plugs on the driver side. I checked the fuse in the glove-box but it's still fine.

The vehicle is a 1996 Buick Century with the 3.1 V6. Any advice of what else I could check, or someway to find out if the coil is good or bad would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

[GTP Dad]

This sounds like an issue with the ignition module not the coil itself. On some cars the ignition module is molded to the coils on others they are separate. I would go to a wrecking yard and find another module and coils if necessary and try to start the car. If that fails then it is possible that the crank position sensor has gone bad. You should check all connections including injector wiring to be sure that they are ok. Otherwise you may have an ECM issue. Unfortunately this one will be a trial and error situation.

[gmoneygaryb]

Thanks alot. Is there any way to test the module/coils that I get from the wrecking yard? I don't want to go to pick n' pull to pay for a bad module.

Thanks again

[gmoneygaryb]

Oh, and I have the module and coils bound together, so I'm guessing I might have to replace the whole assembly? That would be a big waste of money if that's not the problem. But thanks for the advice!!

[richtazz]

the coils do separate from the module. You can take it into an Advance Auto or Auto-Zone store, and they can test it for free. Make sure they run the test multiple times to get the module warm, as they can test good cold and fail when hot. Also, be sure you didn't accidentally pinch the wires from the cam position sensor in between the intake and the block. The cam position sensor is very close to the end of the manifold, and if pinched, will cause a no spark.

[gmoneygaryb]

Originally Posted by richtazz

the coils do separate from the module. You can take it into an Advance Auto or Auto-Zone store, and they can test it for free. Make sure they run the test multiple times to get the module warm, as they can test good cold and fail when hot. Also, be sure you didn't accidentally pinch the wires from the cam position sensor in between the intake and the block. The cam position sensor is very close to the end of the manifold, and if pinched, will cause a no spark.

Excellent, thank you