I had so many people asking me about the car after it was parked at work for three weeks (including the guards who were getting pissed, lol) that I decided to simply write the explaination of the problem and hand out sheets! (Remember I work at a car factory, not at the Gap™... Thus you get to hear a lot of theories about setting points, carburetors, ballast resistors and other stuff that is meaningless on a 2.2 turbo) For that reason, I included some backstory that isn't strictly required for you guys.

Important points are bolded.


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Last fall, I purchased an ’89 Chrysler Maserati TC (Touring Convertible) at a significant discount because the 2.2 liter turbo engine idled roughly, and had very little power. While looking at the car, I determined the cam-to-crankshaft timing was no longer correct. This is a relatively simple problem on a Chrysler engine, given their superior non-interference valve-to-piston design. (As compared to typical Japanese 4-cylinder engines which destroy themselves if a similar timing problem occurs.)

This timing-belt takes a few hours and requires a $15 part. I decided to simply have the job done by a local tech who specializes in this era of FWD Chrysler turbo cars. While he was under the hood, I decided to have the mechanic replace the decades-old distributor, cap, rotor and wires.

For the next two weeks I began to use the car everyday, including trips to work. One day, the car failed to start on my return-home trip (no spark). I prefer not to “shotgun” replacement parts, but to instead find the root-cause of failure. However, in this case the overwhelming response from fellow enthusiasts was to simply replace the distributor pick-up coil. It’s about a $30 part and 10 minute job, so I changed the part. This required me to remove the distributor cap. I carefully re-installed the cap, making sure that the locating-tab was in the correct location.

The car still refused to start, which required me to begin a proper troubleshooting procedure, checking wiring, etc. I was able to find a broken fusible-link in the wring harness ignition circuit, which I promptly repaired. Naturally, after this repair I expected the car to start right up… Absolutely no change, the car remained as dead as ever.

Now began a very time consuming process of checking every part of the ignition and fuel system, including continuity of all wiring between the car’s computer and fuel injection circuits, component values in the ignition system, grounds for related electrical parts, etc. Each check revealed no problem. I then moved to the mechanical components, which required a compression check of the cylinders and a “double check” of timing (since this had recently been serviced). Again, everything checked out well within spec.

However upon re-assembling the distributor after the cam timing check, (which showed the distributor rotor in the CORRECT position at Top Dead Center) I noticed the associated spark plug wire leading to the number “4” cylinder, rather than “1”. How could this be? I had never removed any wires from the distributor cap, and the car ran well before the no-start problem arrived. I had used much care to correctly re-install the distributor cap.

Well it turns out that the mechanic who had earlier replaced the distributor cap and wires had installed the cap BACKWARDS, ignoring the locating tap on the distributor. I'm sure this was just an oversight. The problem would have eventually showed itself because the backwards installation would allow moisture into the distributor cap. Because I changed-parts, rather than troubleshoot, I re-installed the cap correctly, but effectively reversed the order of the spark plug wires, thus creating a new problem with the same symptoms!! The idea of incorrect firing order had entered my mind earlier, but I dismissed it because I’m used to working on V8s, and even a reversed firing order will usually produce a backfiring, coughing, mess of an engine. Because of the greater time between firing impulses on a 4 cylinder, a 180 degree reversal produces nothing but a dead engine.

Is there a moral to this story? Yes. 1) Paranoia is a virtue. 2) Even a well-designed American engine that touches Italian soil is going to be troublesome. 3) Don’t shotgun parts! 4) All engines should have at least 8 cylinders. 5) Sometimes things must be ----backwards to function.