car suddenly wont start - never ran great anyway, esp. cold, now cranks, but won't st

[rjSupra]

FOR AT in Supra, in TSRM page AT 6 it says:

"Line pressure
Line pressure is the most basic and important pressure used in the AT, b/c it is used to operate all the clutches and brakes in the transmission.
If the primary regulator valve does not operate correctly, line pressure will be either too high or too low. Line pressure that is too high will lead to shifting shock, and consequent engine power loss due to the greater effort required of the oil pump; line pressure that is too low will cause slippage of clutches and brakes and in extreme cases, prevent the vehicle from moving. Therefore if either of these problems are noted, the line pressure should be measured to see if it is within standard."

I am noting engine power loss big time. When the car is started cold it will either not basically move, like the slightest incline in a simple driveway will either bog down the engine all the way to stall it, or rev and go nowhere. Once my Engine heat temp is normal, I can drive off - albeit with an appalling loss of power, worse than a gutless truck always. How would I check this stuff? I have the car way up in air, to grease the zerks on my new lower ball joints. Are there also electrical cables I should inspect under there for mouse / chipmunk eatage? (There were tons of nests in the car and engine bay when I bought it).


CORRECTION: I cut and pasted the #62 and #63 AT error codes from elsewhere - note the grammatical error on cut n paste too.
However, the scanned TSRM from Cgynus X-1 is more clarifying and specific:
62 is 'Severed #1 solenoid or short circuit - severed wire harness or short circuit
63 is 'Severed #2 solenoid or short circuit - severed wire harness or short circuit
Not sure where to verify all this, but doing more research now online and will root around under car more too.

And another note, the shifting all works, R, D, L, OD etc... it starts in first gear and goes up through 2nd, 3rd and OD. Reverse is fine too. In 'Econ' it shifts early in my opinion, but 'power' is better. So, if anyone wants to send some pointers my way or dealt with these errors / issues let me know!!

[rjSupra]

Located the #1 and #2 Solenoid wires. Took hours online, they are not listed well.
They are Green - Black and Green - Yellow wires, that run nearly to the back of the transmission driver side and both go into a rubber insert into Trans. (There's one final wire that runs to very back which is something else).

Coming back from the AT, it meets a wire connector underneath the intake side of engine, and from there goes to ECT underneath glove box I gather. Wiring into ECT looks brand new, perfect, and all wires are still wrapped and look visually complete everywhere I can spot them. Will try to run the Ohm meter on them tomorrow to double check they are capable of carrying electrical current each way.

[rjSupra]

The plastic wire loom looks like shit, but the wires inside are fine looking without any cracks, holes, tears etc... this answers an older posted suggestion.

[rjSupra]

Dunno why, a just in case I guess, but I just ohm and volt metered my TPS (Throttle Position Sensor).
Pulled cabled connector to TPS. Connected 15 VDC setting on voltmeter to TPS unit / car side (not electrical wire side).

Here's my findings on 2 tests:
My 7M GTE motor has a pin config like this starting at top going down to oil pan floor direction (got this right?? - from TSRM)
VC
VTA
IDL
E2

All measurements made with key ignition switch 'ON' but motor off / cold and not running. It's 40 degrees F here today and not been started in 2 days.
Ohm meter RX100 setting, zeroed dial to '0' with probes connected together at start.

IDL - E2 throttle fully closed = 0 (supposed to be less than 2.3 ohm)
IDL - E2 WOT = infinity (supposed to be infinity)
VC - E2 = 60 ohms (SUPPOSED TO BE 3.9 - 9.0 ohms) - NG
VTA - E2 throttle fully closed = 5 ohms (supposed to be 0.47 - 6.1 ohm)
VTA - E2 WOT = 35 ohms (SUPPOSED TO BE 3.1 - 12.1 ohm) - NG
---------------

2nd test
diagnostic box. My diagnostic box does not list a "TT" connector but has a labelled 'ECT' - that the one I used, voltmeter at 15 VDC setting red probe to 'ECT' pin and neg/blk probe to 'E1' pin.
Ignition switch still at 'ON'. Engine off / not running. Car Battery checked in at 12 Volts (it's cold today).
no throttle:
ECT - E1 reading = 4 Volts
WOT:
ECT - E1 reading = SAME - 4 Volts, it did not budge at all.

Crap, did not measure clearance between lever and stop screw. i remember there is fair amount of slack on the two throttle cables before they would engage anything. Will try to re- check this now.

I am not throwing any engine codes (just AT ones) and no code 41 present. I also have insulation exposed on 1 wire to AFM, the Green - Red one. The wire is exposed about 1/4" near AFM. It's not in contact with anything else, but I just noticed this right now (can't really short anywhere that I can think, other cables with it are intact).

So, is this a smoking gun that my TPS is bad? Or something else like a relay somewhere bad? All the fuses were good not that long ago, can re-check them.
As noted earlier, this car has so little power. It idles immediately at 600 rpms always at cold and warm start up (some start problems in very cold weather where it cranks but won't run over), there is never a high idle no matter how cold she is, or how cold outside. Idles reliably, can't drive for shit cold (will barely move on the flats in any gear), after full Op temp on engine temp gauge it can drive down the road. Can drive at 70 - 75 mph, it's very happy at 70 mph and has some power and runs smooth. Runs like shit at 50 - 55mph at 1700 - 2200 rpms (AT in OD), motor runs ok, but no power, and some light stumbling felt and body quiver. Also started bogging down if I give it 1/4 throttle or more at red light start. I wind up accelerating quite slowly pissing off all behind me. I can tromp it and get the Turbo to whine and spool up and I get a lot more power, but not sports car fast power.

Also, I can work with voltmeters no problem. Never ohm-ed a thing in my life so could have been doing it wrong, but seems pretty simple. Can get '1' on certain metal things etc... makes sense to me.

Any thoughts my helpful forum people? Thank you.

[rjSupra]

Feeling, uh, stupid. After re-reading a number of things, I think my TPS is actually probably where it's suppose to be.
going to re-check it correctly now.
(I did not know where it was scrawled 3.5 - 10.3 that actually probably meant 3500 - 10300 ohms, nor did i realize i was set at Value x 100 which would make a reading of SAY '60' on the meter really mean it was 6000.
I apologize for wasting everyone's time here today.

(car still runs like sh*t though).

[cre]

Heh, yeah those multipliers can be a real bitch. lol. It's okay, I'm sure I've done it.

A bad TPS wouldn't cause significant issues with the operation of the engine... it's just a trim sensor. Worst case scenario you have a poor idle, fuel economy gets a little worse and your throttle response gets a little sloppy. You can actually disconnect the TPS and should be able to drive without noticing a huge difference.

Measuring resistance of the TPS isn't as reliable as measuring the actual voltage at the ECU's VTA pin. Should be ~.5v throttle closed and 3.5v throttle wide open. I remember from tuning these cars that the voltage should not exceed 3.48v at WOT. Vc should be at about 5v (around 4.8v measured at any sensor location).

I thought I already covered this but that must've been in another thread.

[rjSupra]

Thanks Cre!! I always feel better if you are weighing in.

So, yeah got it all sorted. The TPS values are all in the ballpark. I think it's fine.
If I measure VTA - E2 at WOT my value is 3.6 at rX1000
VTA - E2 with .9mm simulated gap at throttle stop the value is 5.5 at rx100, 0 at rx1000
VTA - E2 with 0mm gap there, value is 5 at rx100 or 0 at rx1000 (should be 0.2 to 1.2K ohms)
IDL - E2 at WOT is infinite.
VC - E2 59 at rx100 5.1 at rx1000 (should be 4.25 - 8.25K ohms)
There's more I measured but I think this covers it generally.
TT (ECT) - E1 at diagnosis box I read under 1 volt and then up to about 7.5 volts at WOT. That all checks out ok.

Here's where things get real strange. Still have AT errors 62 and 63 stored.
Did a full wiring analysis with visual, resistance and alternative power source.

Basically, if I break the 5 pin connector apart from near starter from ECT to transmission, and also when I went all the way to where that connects back to the ECT, if I run a 9 Volt battery + to each pin - Solenoid #1, Solenoid #2 and Solenoid Lock I can activate them all and hear them distinctly click (while grounded to frame). Both at 5 pin breakaway spot, and at ECT ending cable connector spot.
Resistance Ohm values in and out of ECT are in spec up these three using brown ECT ground in unit as ground (all 3 are 11 - 12 ohm resistance).
However, if I Ohm meter the cable connector that attaches to the ECT near passenger footwell, this is not right.
Solenoid #1 pin resistance = infinite
Solenoid #2 pin resistance = 70 at rX100 setting AND 19 at rX1000 setting.
Solenoid lock resistance = infinite.

So, what is this deal here? It would seem that I have electrical wire short or sever. Yet I can send power down these exact pins and activate the solenoids in distant transmission.
The damn barn mice didn't get their grubby little jaws on the wiring anywhere near the ECT, it looks like this whole area just rolled off the factory floor.
So am in crazy crazy land? (I think I bought a big piece of property there anyway with this car...)