I had to replace the engine in my 850 t5 (son doesn't understand oil). I replaced it with a used motor. Completed the installation, but it will not start. plugs will not fire. According my Chilton manual the the primary winding test should read 0.5 to 1.5 ohms, and the secondary winding test should read 8 to 9 kilohms. The both read 0.0 on both my old and new coil. Also my crankcase position sensor should read between 200 and 500 ohms, but it reads 5.6 ohms. Am I off base thinking both of these components are bad?

 

If the ohms are too low it means that you have low resistance. Low resistance leads to high current. So either you are testing wrong (most likely seeing as you seem to have two issues at once) or you have a short to ground somewhere.

 

I tested both the coil and the crankshaft position sensor with them uninstalled.

 

Please don't take offense but are you familiar with the different measurement scales on your VOM? Something is amiss. What pins are you measuring the 2ndary from?

Assume you meant crank speed sensor (on the trans bell housing) when you said "crankcase position sensor"?

BTW: what about the cam position sensor; leave it unplugged by chance?

 

Since I'm not that familiar with the different scales, I switched between ell of them. Yes I meant the crankshaft or crank speed sensor. And the Cam position sensor is connected. I was so careful to tag and label all the connectors, llines and tubes as I was removing the old engine, went step by step installing the new one, and now I can't get it to start.

 

I still think you did this wrong. You should never have 0 ohms

 

I'm not saying that I didn't, but I followed the direction in my repair manual. I would love to find that I did something simple wrong, and get the car running.

 

When you tested them "installed" did you disconnect the wiring to them to test them ??
When testing the parts for ohms they need to be isolated, disconnected from anything else.

On the meter for OHMs you need have the black lead in the COM or common and the red in the volt/ohm slot. There is a third slot for amps and you only use it for amps.

 

If you have a short you will get 0 ohms and it's a valid result.

From Wiki: In circuit analysis a short circuit is a connection between two nodes that forces them to be at the same voltage. In an ideal short circuit, this means there is no resistance and no voltage drop across the short. In real circuits, the result is a connection with almost no resistance. In such a case, the current that flows is limited by the rest of the circuit.

 

YES, no resistnce

 

"Yes"

"Yes" they were disconnected from the circuit when you tested them.

 

I got the same readings installed or uninstalled. If I'm testing wrong, please tell me.

 

Even really good wires and connectors should show some resistance in them. most GOOD meters will say "out of limits" or "ouch" if they see zero ohms. I know with my crappy harbor freight meter it will say zero sometimes if i have it set in too high of range, its so basic that you have to tell it to measure between several different ranges of resistance. Its REALLY hard for anyone to tell you that you're testing wrong over the internet, but, it's really unlikely that you can test two different things and come up with those results.