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91 metro orange/weak spark
Topic Started: Feb 21 2010, 08:26 PM (3,256 Views)
BrandonWhite
Fresh Fish
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Well I Just bought my buddies 1991 geo metro 1.0 for $300. It ran fine for about a month, then it wouldnt start at all. I checked spark directly at the coil and its orange which is weak. I am also getting spark to all the plugs, but weak as well. I bought a new coil and still no luck. This year has the round canister type coil.

I checked all grounds and they had continuity. I checked ground to +coil and got 11.8v with coil on. It is only slightly low, but the spark is way weak for almost 12v. The motor cranks over quite fast and battery was at 12.8v which should be enough to start. What are all the causes of an orange spark?

Thanks everyone in advance, and note I've been searching for the past hour or so with no such luck.
Edited by BrandonWhite, Feb 21 2010, 08:37 PM.
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Bad Bent
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Facetious Educated Donkey

Welcome to the forum, BrandonWhite! :coffee

Every source I can find says bad coil. I simply replaced my old coil with a Pertronix Ignitor II. Much the same as your MSD Blaster coils. Checking the continuity was a good move. I clean the grounds from time to time and added a ground wire set I got off eBay for $20 to increase the current flow... path of least resistance.

My service manual says the primary resistance, + to - on the disconnected coil should be 1.33-1.55 ohms. and secondary (negative connection to tower/Dist. wire connection) should be 10,700-14,500 ohms. If not, replace.

Someone will be along shortly to give you more information... ^o)
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Memphis metro


Bad or shorted coil wire or plug wires could be the problem. Hows the wires look? Spray some starting fluid into the intake and see if it will run on that. It may be flooded and needs to run to clear itself out and sometimes they will hit on the starting fluid and crank up and clear themselves out. Oh and another thing. Never assume the worst first. Start with the little likely things.
Edited by Memphis metro, Feb 21 2010, 09:15 PM.
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BrandonWhite
Fresh Fish
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Well it had a full tuneup right before I received it. new cap/rotor, plugs, wires, and now coil. I can smell the fuel and I tried ether. It wont try to fire at all, but does have the orange weak spark. The timing is dead on as well.
Edited by BrandonWhite, Feb 21 2010, 09:38 PM.
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Johnny Mullet
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Fear the Mullet

Remove the distributor cap and carefully check the contacts in there. They might be corroded or moisture in there.
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Memphis metro


Little confused as to what is going on. At first you said weak spark and down below you say no spark. Big john has a good point check under the cap, any moisture blow it out good with a airhose.
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BrandonWhite
Fresh Fish
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Sorry, what I meant is the engine wont attempt to fire at all because its so weak. Maybe the internals of the distributor have gone bad, but I cant afford anything too expensive at the moment. Everything inside of it looked clean though.

This site is great already!! I actually can get a response lol.
Edited by BrandonWhite, Feb 21 2010, 09:46 PM.
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mwebb
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FOG

BrandonWhite
Feb 21 2010, 08:26 PM


"I checked all grounds and they had continuity. I checked ground to +coil and got 11.8v with coil on. It is only slightly low, but the spark is way weak for almost 12v.

The motor cranks over quite fast and battery was at 12.8v which should be enough to start.

What are all the causes of an orange spark?"

let us assume your spark is NOT WEAK
let us assume KV demand is low because of conditions present at the spark plug gap

hmmm let us think
what would UN elevate KV at the spark plug gap ....

could it be incorrect gap ?
oh yes , that would do it , what is the correct gap ? are your spark plug gaps set correctly ?

what else would cause low KV demand at the spark plug gap ?
how about cylinder LOW COMPRESSION ? would that do it ?

you betcha ,

what event would lower compression on all 3 cylinders at the same time ?
hmmm
maybe the timing belt is out of time ...
would that cause "The motor cranks over quite fast"

you betcha .
Edited by mwebb, Feb 21 2010, 11:37 PM.
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BrandonWhite
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I'm not sure on the compression, I will test it tomorrow. I would laugh if the plugs were never gapped That is one thing i didnt check.
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starscream5000
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Got 70 MPG?

Don't hold me to this, I'm just going off of memory, but I think my sticker under the hood says to set the gap at .029"
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