I pulled one of the plugs out and connected it to the plug wire, and it's not sparking when we turn it over... we changed the camshaft sensor and the crankshaft sensor, any suggestions?

 

When checking for spark you have to put the plug close to metal to see if it has spark. Do you have fuel?

You may have a bad ignition coil or bad rotor.

 

As you know there is not distributor, and the coils are on the spark plugs, so if you don't have spark at all six plugs something is missing voltage, if you only checked one plug, then you might try testing all six.

You don't state what year model you have, that is important because there were some electrical changes in '95 and '96 and beyond. Are you getting any trouble codes?

There is a ignition relay on the earlier models, that could be the cause of the no spark, also there are power stages that supply the coils, two of them. If you have spark on three coils than, look to a power stage.

Also the cam sensor does not have any bearing on no spark issue, the computer can over come not having one, so that RPM sensor is critical, but if it missing it's signal, there would be a diagnostic code and no spark.

There is a power voltage test terminal at the rear of the head, it is a single lead, white/red wire, female connector. With a voltmeter, ignition on, that lead and ground should measure battery voltage. That will confirm that voltage is getting to the power stages.

I suspect that if there is no spark to all of the cylinders, it still is the RPM sensor, you might have to gain access to the flywheel and inspect the pulse ring to see if something has bent it.

A wiring diagram of the ignition system might also come in handy. Then you can verify continuity to wires all the way to the ecm. It will take some detective work to chase down.

DanR '94 964 356,000 miles (122,000 on the new engine)

 

it's a 1993 960, so I'll check all the plugs today, I only checked 2 of them and neither was getting a spark. also I dont know where to plug in the diagnostic computer or anything..where is the OBD II input?

 

OBDii did not arrive until 1996, so you can read the stored codes yourself using the code reader located under the hood on the front fender, you will find 2 black boxes, there might be zip ties holding the covers on, the box you want is labeled "B". there are 6 holes for the wire, you want hole 2, there is a single plug wire that is inserted into either boxes.

Plug in the wire, turn ignition on, push button more than three seconds but not longer than 5, then the LED will blink in a pattern, no stored code is 1-1-1. If there is a code, as an example 3-1-3, the LED will blink three times followed by a short rest, blink once, another rest and blink once. Push the button again as above and the next code will shown, if the same code comes up again than there are no other stored fault codes.

Let us know what you find.

DanR