No start Diaganostic

[LimitedT]

Hello all
New to the board here I'm trying to give a friend a little help with his 89 SHO.
Car was running fine (it is his daily driver) but needed the water pump to be replaced. While he had it apart he also added new plugs and wires. After he got it back together it has not started. It tries to start but runs for a few sec and backfires through the intake. Reading some of the other posts in the archives this may be a symptom of a bad Cam sensor. My question is this if it is a cam sensor is there a way of testing it before buying a new one? ( very low budget here and I don't just want to throw parts at it))We have double checked all of the connections and don't see any problems. The fuel pump was replaced in the summer and there is pressure at the rail. Its getting spark because it does try to run. Any comments or help would be greatly appreciated. TIA
Dave

 

[rubydist]

First thing to do is check the plug wire routing - several of the manuals (non-Ford) have the wire routing wrong, so you would end up connecting the wires to the wrong terminals on the coils. This results in poor running or not running. There is a correct wiring diagram here on the forum.

Second thing to do is double check all grounds have been connected right. Typically the intake is removed to change plug wires, and the grounding of the intake is critical since the DIS requires a good ground. It is not uncommon to forget to connect the ground at the passenger side rear of the intake manifold.

Third thing to do is to pull the codes. All you need is a paper clip and the ability to count. Let us know what codes appear.

 

[LimitedT]

Thanks Rubydist
He has made sure the wiring is correct and has double checked the grounds. He went out and Bought and installed the cam sensor anyway.Still no luck. The car tries to fire but nothing. I will be heading there tomorrow to see If I can lend a hand. Ill try to see if there are any codes. I'm not familiar with the computer on this car is there a "Sticky" post on how to read the codes around? I'll check the archives. Any other advice would be greatly welcomed.TIA
Dave