Newbie here. Got an 85 with the Iron Duke, great price a couple of parts and I was on the road....love my Fiero BUT....this morning I am heading down the road and it just died on me. I am getting gas, further testing revealed no spark. Have 12Volts from coil to cap. Removed distributor cap, made note to replace cap and rotor, and noted that the rotor is not turning when trying to start it. I've never seen an engine like this and could use a hand figuring out what I need to do. I am comfortable tearing it all the way down (have rebuilt a couple of engines and transmissions). If I missed something in the forums please point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Andy

I THINK i have your answer thats if im correct... if the 4 cyl has an ignition module on it then its def that ... its under the dis cap oh and welcome to the forum!

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Dflint...85 SE

Rotor not turning is a bad sign. I would pull the rocker cover and see if the valves are moving. Sounds like the timing gear might of went. You might get lucky and if the valves are moving, you could pull the dist. and see if the gear came loose or off the dist. shaft.

Edit to add : Welcome to PFF !

[This message has been edited by Mike Gonzalez (edited 10-26-2010).]

You're sure about the rotor not turning? The ICM won't pulse the injector if it doesn't see the ignition signal, and you did say it was getting gas. Makes me wonder just a bit.

quote Originally posted by Mike Gonzalez: I would pull the rocker cover and see if the valves are moving.

Would you really do that when you can see the rockers just by removing the oil fill cap?

Otherwise yeah.

Where ya at Andy?

Thanks for the help so far; I sprayed some starter/ether fluid and still no start. When it first happened, I am pretty sure I saw and smelled gas-could be mistaken. I am sure the rotor is not turning. Due to work schedule (damn this addiction to food, housing, clothes and now my Fiero!) it may be a few days before I can go further with troubleshooting. And I am in middle Tennessee, not too far outside of Nashville.

quote Originally posted by KurtAKX: Would you really do that when you can see the rockers just by removing the oil fill cap? Otherwise yeah. Where ya at Andy?

LOL, guess I would...never tried to just look through the oil hole. Usually there is a splash guard that wont allow them to be seen. If i ever have a 2.5 again I will remember that !

quote Originally posted by Mike Gonzalez: Rotor not turning is a bad sign. I would pull the rocker cover and see if the valves are moving. Sounds like the timing gear might of went. You might get lucky and if the valves are moving, you could pull the dist. and see if the gear came loose or off the dist. shaft. Edit to add : Welcome to PFF !

If the rockers aren't moving, the timing gear came apart and this is a common incident. The factory timing set is made of a composit material, not metal. There is an aftermarket metal set, but those make more noise.

quote Originally posted by andyman13: Thanks for the help so far; I sprayed some starter/ether fluid and still no start. When it first happened, I am pretty sure I saw and smelled gas-could be mistaken. I am sure the rotor is not turning. Due to work schedule (damn this addiction to food, housing, clothes and now my Fiero!) it may be a few days before I can go further with troubleshooting. And I am in middle Tennessee, not too far outside of Nashville.

If the rotor isn't turning, spraying ether is not going to help. You have either stripped the distributor gear on the cam shaft or more likely, the phenolic cam gear has stripped. This is a common problem on Duke engines, they are all approaching 25 years of age or more and the plastic gives out. Do a search, you can change the gear without removing the engine or the cam shaft.

Okay, so I have been SERIOUSLY bitten by the "Fiero" bug...set my clock so I could have enough time to do some more troubleshooting this morning before going to work. Looks like the timing gear came apart, thanks to you all for the help. If anyone has a link that talks about changing the gear without removing the engine, etc. I would greatly appreciate that-will do some searching this evening.

Here ya go. And Welcome to the madness....

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/A...020825-2-018751.html

Next check:

Look inside oil fill hole and see if rocker arm will move when helper hit the starter.

No Rocker Arm movement? Timing Gear is likely shot. See cave. Cam gear in L4 engine section.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 10-27-2010).]

quote Originally posted by theogre: Next check: Look inside oil fill hole and see if rocker arm will move when helper hit the starter. No Rocker Arm movement? Timing Gear is likely shot. See cave. Cam gear in L4 engine section.

Do this before you do anything else. You might not have bad gears, and find out it is just the distributor gear came loose.

Okay, so the rockers didn't move...looks like I am replacing a gear or two. I've seen where there is a metal aftermarket set that is available but makes more noise. If any of you have done this just how much more noise does it make? And which do you recommend-the composite or metal?
Thanks again for all the help
Andy

My original composite gears lasted 21 years and 197,000 miles. I would consider that a success so I replaced them with the same type.

[This message has been edited by Hudini (edited 10-28-2010).]

Thanks again to all for the advice, tips, etc. Going to go with composite gears (these lasted 25 years, 167k miles!) One last question, does anyone know of a source for the thrust plate? I may have found one, but they are saying it is for a 2.2 and 3.0l engine-part number is the same (12508079) but not sure if it is the same one....(just a note...I found the gear set and timing cover gasket/seal set locally at Advance Auto)

I did not replace mine so can't help on a source. When looking around the web that part number was listed as fitting tons of cars. Maybe just drill some holes in yours to look like the new one?