Hi, I'm beginning to hate foreign cars. Never had one before and wish I never picked up this lemon. I replaced the alternator because it would drain the battery every night. My car just won't start, I pulled a plug and it was wet with gas, the belts are turning, the spark is weak. the spark is orange instead of white /blue. I have new wires, plugs, fuel injectors. The car will crank forever but just won't turn over. I believe it's the distributor, not sure how to check it. There is one test but my voltmeter can't read ohms that high. Any suggestions what else this could be ? I was gonna order a new distributor and put it in. It's a 97 Diamante LS, thanks in advance !!

 

I just bought my son a 99 and it is having alternator problems too. We have not done much to the car so I like you am unfamilliar with foriegn cars and it is frustrating trying to figure out how the thing goes together.

If the spark is week it is most likely the coil that transforms the 12v to a high voltage for the plug. I would expect it would be in the distributer cap, and can be replaced without pulling the distributer, but this is an assumption.

I am still trying to figure out how to remove the alternator belt.

 

Hi, yeah, I had trouble figuring that out too at first. I'm used to an arm that you just pull back on and the belt rolls off. To take off the alternator, you have to loosen the tensioner pulley bolt ,then underneath that is a bolt, which is pointing to the ground. As you turn the bolt the tensioner starts to ride straight upward , I had to turn that bolt a lot to get the belt off, you'll see the bolt coming down and the pulley going up. Don't remove the bolt, who knows what kind of trouble that may cause lol. After you get the belt off and the bolts holding the alternator in place, it's still a bit of trouble working the alternator out of the car. I didn't have to remove anything else, but you have to get two hands in there to work the alternator out , kind of turning it sideways. I had to take mine out twice. I took it out to get tested and was told it was fine. When the alt. was plugged in I could still hear a high pitched whine coming from it, with the engine off. I took it out a second time and just replaced it. At first we had to unplug the alt every time we went somewhere otherwise it would drain the battery by morning. Good luck with her !!

 

Thanks, for the heads up. I saw the tension pully and lowering bolt and figured that was it. It was loosening the pully first that was hanging me up. From what I'm reading alternator problems are common. Did you find the ignition problem on yours?

I have ordered the factory service manuals and they should be here today, If I can look anything up for you let me know.

 

Hey thanks. I haven't gone near it. Every time I do it needs something else haha. I'm ordering a distributor today, the cap and rotor are new. I've only had the car 2 months and in that time I've replaced the Y pipe coming off the intake, the catalytic converter, a purge valve solenoid, belt, plugs, wires,fuel injectors, valve cover gasket, alternator, cap and rotor. By the way, if you replace the fuel filter be real careful of the connector going into the filter. Mine broke and had to replace the fuel line from the filter to the tank. It's a plastic line !!! On yours the filter may be in a different place, mine was under the drivers side rear.
I have a Chilton manual, but it's garbage, it actually has the firing order wrong !! Hope you have better luck with your Crapamante , lol

 

Got the manuals today, noticed there are spec on the Back cover. It shows the firing order as 123456. does'nt get much easier than that.

 

Alternator in, had to remove the alt bracket and fan, but they werent that difficult. Next will be multiple oil leaks, and then suspension and or steering boots.

 

The Chilton manual shows the front right cylinder as # 1 , in reality it's actually # 6, number 1 was in the back left. That had me all screwed up for awhile, when we put it right the misfire code went away. I'm still waiting on the distributor : ( My buddy calls my car a boat anchor !! I didn't have to remove the fan , just worked it out sideways.