Lincoln Continental Won’t Start

One Friday afternoon, I stopped by the local bike shop to pick up a few parts for my dirt bike. When I turned into the parking lot, I spied a familiar figure standing by a black 1995 Lincoln Continental with the hood up.

“Hey Chaz,” I said, shaking his hand. “Where have you been hiding lately? I heard you retired after I smoked you in that national hare scrambles race at Hollister a couple of years ago.” “You wish,” he laughed. “I quit racing for awhile so I could buy a house. Now that I have that handled, I decided to start-up again.

And speaking of starting up, this engine will crank over, but it won’t start. It doesn’t seem to have any spark,” Chaz related. “Let’s take it to my shop. Maybe I can figure out something,” I offered. “Sounds great,” answered Chaz. “I’m sure glad I ran into you.”

I had the car towed to my shop and after a quick check for TSBs on ALLDATA, we found one that seemed to match the symptoms exactly.

Here is what the TSB revealed:

There may be an intermittent “no start” condition on some 1995-97 Lincoln Continentals. The problem could stem from a poor connection at the Crankshaft Position (CKP) sensor connector terminals, which will result in a no spark and no fuel condition. The repair is to install new terminal ends.

Repair Procedure

1. Disconnect the 2-way connector from the CKP sensor and carefully remove the insulation to expose approximately 2.5″ (63 mm) of wire. For wire color coding, refer to Figure 1.

2. Pry up the yellow terminal lock wedge inside the connector and remove, but do not discard it.

3. Disconnect only one terminal at a time to avoid reversing leads. Terminals are removed by lifting the plastic finger lock (Figure 2) located inside the connector, away from the terminal and then pulling on the wire.

4. Unwind the twisted wire and splice on a new terminal lead. Solder the wire in place.

5. Reinsert the terminal into the connector, making sure the plastic finger retains the terminal.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for the other terminal lead.

7. Reinsert the yellow terminal lock wedge from Step 2.

8. Reassemble the harness by twisting the wires and reapplying the all of the original insulation.

NOTE: Be sure to tie wrap or tape the harness pigtail away from the fuel line protection clip to eliminate the possibility of chafing.

9. Reconnect the CKP sensor and verify the repair.

I had the job finished in about 25 minutes, confidently closed the hood and asked Chaz to start the engine. The big Lincoln fired right up. “Awesome, Rich!” he exclaimed. “How much do I owe you?” “I’ll catch you next time,” I replied. “Well at least let me take you out to dinner to thank you for helping me out,” Chaz offered. “Besides, you’re going to need your strength if you’re going to try to beat me at the race this Sunday.” “You’re on,” I said. Some things never change…

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Written by ALLDATA Technical Editor, Rich Diegle. Rich is an Advanced Engine Performance Certified, ASE Master Technician with an AA Degree in automotive technology and 22 years of dealership and independent shop experience.

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