[2Beers]

Hello
I'm at my wits end with a little turbo car. 
Suggestions and ideas greatly appreciated.

1980 Mercury Bobcat.
2.3 TC conversion done many years ago.
Donor was an 1987 TC

Car has run fantastic up till recently.

Crank but NO start/Run.
:Timing is dead on.
:Fuel..yes 40 lbs
:Compression...yes

Thing new and are done so far...
:checked vales and cam....awesome shape, around 120000 miles on engine.
:vacuums ...check
:firing order..check
:timing
:Fuel and fuel pressure 
:45/50 lbs oil pressure
:Checked injectors...all firing etc...
: all sensors are plugged in etc...
:plug gaps checked, cleaned and reinstalled.
: killer spark on plugs

New or changed out.......
:Fuel pump.... high pressure
:Fuel regulators on fuel rail
:pIP, on lower distributor
:Relay box for 1987/1988 wiring harness
:Starter
:Alternator 

Things not changed or messed with.....
:LA3 computer
:Coil
:Large Vam

Symptoms are again....
:cranks but will not run
:won't even hit on either 
:Wet plugs
ometimes the Vam door will flap while cranking (this is why I checked valves, cam and timing 100 times)

Has spark, compression, timing and correct fuel pressure at injectors.

Has my computer possibly stopped working ???????
Lost In Idaho...The struggles are ford real.
 Ideas and or suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance .

[Michael F]

Had it been running fine previously and then just wouldn't start one day without any work being done to it?

Both times I've experienced these symptoms were from crank and cam being out of time. Both times after I had it apart one or both were a tooth off after rechecking it. After setting it, I suggested rotating the crank a couple revolutions and recheck to ensure they're in sync.

check out Stinger's guides here.... https://www.stinger-performance.com/tech.html

[2Beers]

Had it been running fine previously and then just wouldn't start one day without any work being done to it?

Both times I've experienced these symptoms were from crank and cam being out of time.  Both times after I had it apart one or both were a tooth off after rechecking it.  After setting it, I suggested rotating the crank a couple revolutions and recheck to ensure they're in sync. 

check out Stinger's guides here.... https://www.stinger-performance.com/tech.html

Hello Michael.
Huge thank you on a response.
Very appreciated.

Car has ran amazingly for years on the TC conversion,
It just quit one day (recently)...

I also keep going back to timing, 
Every thing checks out dead to rights with timing marks. Ive seriously checked it a dozen times. Even had a retired Ford tech..."Brother in law"..check it with me twice.
Just to be sure I'm not crazy....

Ive checked cam and valves even. They are golden.

Yesterday, I removed LA3 computer and installed it in my 1974 Pinto TC conversion. Runs even better then my LB2 set up I have in it.
So computer has now been also eliminated from equation now.

Im down to getting out my meter reader and start going threw voltage and wiring I guess.

The wiring harness is out of the donor 1987 TC, It was a real struggle to get running with the hardest wiring configuration they made no doubts.

I'm completely at a loss with figuring out why it just quit and won't run.

I have compression, Spark,Timing and fuel.
It should at least fart or back fire...... Hahahahaa 

I may go forth and build a better wiring harness out of another spare 1987 TC. Simplify things a bit more.
I'm not ready to invest in another Ron Francis wiring kit yet for the little crapper.

Thanks again, and I'll keep everyone posted.
The struggles are FERD real on this one. It's a stumper no doubts.

[Michael F]

I've had several stumping issues with mine as well, but the rest of mine had at least some firing of the cylinders. I had another issue similar where I couldn't get the cylinders to fire but an inline tester showed spark, injectors were good, compression was good, etc. I can't recall if the fix was a wiring issue or the distributor gear and aux shaft issue. The wiring issue I'm thinking was in the fusible link area by the battery tray. I ended up just replacing all of the fusible links. The other one I found the dizzy gear and aux shaft had worn gears. It was only really noticeable on like 3 teeth on each component but they were super thin, almost like a knife on those few teeth.

[dan_xr4]

Is it possible that you somehow fixed your original starting issue but created a new problem ?

You check the timing with a timing light ? Did you take the distributor out and put it back in ? Do you know that the spark is occurring during the compression stroke and not during the exhaust stroke ? Could the distributor now be off by 360 degrees ?

[2Beers]

Greetings and hello.

Sorry for the late response, A guy has been stupid busy.

Thanks on the reply and ideas guys.

I will pull distributor one more time and carefully examine dizzy and roll pin on it.
My guess is now it may be a wiring issue.
That being said, I'm headed outside , to dig out another donor car 1987 wire harness.
I'll be stripping it down to the essentials and hopefully make it even better then the first one I installed.
It should also help me remember colors of wires, pin locations and where they all go.

On timing, Im pretty dead positive its all right. I can not put a timing light on because car will not run.

I may how ever pull the timing plug too and see if I get a different response before disassembly.

These will be my finial attempts at getting it running. If it don't, I'll be keeping it just for the parts and pieces.

Thanks again everyone, I'll keep you posted.

[dan_xr4]

You can still use a timing light on an engine that just cranks and does not start.

I have a remote starter switch that I put on the starter solenoid, so that I can crank the engine while using my timing light.