960 97 960 (Weird) No Crank, No Start

[Fixed] 97 960 (Weird) No Crank, No Start

** Fix was to re-attach the ground wire that's attached to the motor at the cam sensor **





Drove seven mins to autozone today... when I hopped back in the car it developed a no-crank/no start. It shows some symptoms of it being the a PNP/position switch on the transmission being dead, but it's not conclusive.. reverse lights work for example...

Symptoms/Observations


Transmission arrow flashes on dashboard with ignition on.
W and S (or E depending on what's selected) lights blink
AC light on the ECC system also blinking (Thought this was strange)
Reverse light illuminate when reverse is selected
Car does not crank
Battery and Oil lights appear dimmer that usual... others look fine
No DTCs present in OBD (Hope to take a look at trans module with VOL-FCR later)
Shift lock releases just fine.

Things done/checked

Battery is good, jumped it anyway... nothing.
Checked all fuses, they are good except 5A for the rear foglight
Worked shift lever back and forth probably 70 times
Tried starting in neutral
Tried starting in various places in and around park and neutral
Reseated connector on the ECU\ECM
Reseated connector for the PNP switch
Unplugged the battery for a while
Jumped the remote start pin for fun, got a solenoid to click and that was about it.

Retrieved the codes from the transmission.
Initially got:

AT-114 Mode Selector Switch Signal too high
AT-124 Mode selector switch, signal too low
Unknown DTC 8

Cleared the codes and only the AT-124 remains. VIDA and VADIS don't mention this causing a no-start though.. Only that it would operate in E mode only

Maybe it's the cam sensor.

"Well, it is programmed to not start in gear."

^My old boss chiding me for my disbelief that the range selector would cause a no start.

Also, verify battery connections are good and that the battery has appropriate voltage (just because... these are always good steps when getting DTCs that indicate 'voltage (signal) out of range').

It has been almost twenty years since I have worked on any 960 - but, I seem to remember vaguely that if the shift indicator is flashing that the range selector is likely gone. However, it could have been the lights on the lower center console near the shifter. Can't remember. Been to long ago.

Just for giggles check for a bad block to chassis ground.

Shifted said:

Just for giggles check for a bad block to chassis ground.

Click to expand...

Yep, that was it. The ground wire from the chassis to the cam sensor bolt at the back of the head was disconnected from when I removed the cam sensor earlier this week. The ground wire must have been resting on the block when I first drove the car that day, then dropped off when I stopped.

Today I put sensor back in so I could get a good connection with the ground wire, dashboard lights illuminated to a normal brightness and it started right up.

So to summarize, that ground on the back of the motor seems kinda important for the TCM, ECM\ECU and ECC. Cleared the transmission codes as well and it's operating normally.

Now to order a new cam sensor.

Good find. Some Hondas are that way too. I've seen them no start when the valve cover ground is disconnected or bad. Redblock isn't the same. It doesn't care about the valve cover ground.