No Spark to Spark Plugs – 87 Olds Cutlass Ciera

Reader Question Hi,
I have a 87 cutlass sierra and I’m not getting a spark from my plugs but she is cranking over without problem. Well, I’ve found 2 wires under my hood that are disconnected. I don’t know if they are the cause of the car not starting or not.

I took a couple of photos of the disconnected wires and uploaded them to a
website: what do these wires do

I don’t see where they are suppose to go – I’m stumped. Could you please take a look at the photos and see if they look familiar to you and if you think that this may be the problem of the no start.

Thanks a lot,
Tony

Ps. I don’t know how the wires got disconnected but I left the hood the other day and I saw the biggest rat I’ve ever seen. Freaked me out 🙂 I live out in the sticks and park outside.

Hey Tony,

I am not real sure what those two wires go to, but they look too small to be a part of the main spark control. I would guess they are for the emission system, air conditioning, or something along those lines.

Of course you can repair the wire with a wire nut if you can find the other ends of the wires to connect to.

If you don’t have spark, the first place I would look at would be the crankshaft position sensor which is down near the harmonic balancer, crankshaft pulley at the bottom of the engine behind the serpentine fan belt. You should see a sensor and a wire going to the sensor behind the pulley. That is a common failure item, and lack of spark to the spark plugs is the main symptom.

Here is a picture of the sensor
Crank Shaft Sensor

Blessings,
Austin Davis