Oddest Starting Issue ...EVER!

[CCM911]

My car is running pretty good. It is the starting ritual that must be solved.

When I start the car in the morning, it fires right off like it should, and then stalls. Then it will not restart....until I place the factory alarm key in the door and turn the key to the on position, and then back to the off position. And then the car will start right up.

I have already replaced the DME relay with the correct factory product(thanks, Pelican).

Is the factory alarm tied into the fuel pump? Or does it prevent the coil from sparking?

Where do I even begin on this oddball malady?

Thanks so much for reading.

[scarceller]

The factory alarm is tied directly to the DME relay and will shutdown the relay pin 86. With key in 'RUN' and 'START' you must have 12vdc on pin 86. If the alarm is tripped it will not send 12vdc to pin 86 and the relay powers down completely, it takes the entire DME down!

When this happens you can easily tell if the DME is powered down. Simply listen to see if the Idle Control Valve is humming and feel if it's vibrating. I bet that on first time key goes to 'RUN' the ICV is humming. Then the engine stalls and the ICV is no longer humming?

I think you may have an alarm issue. You can bypass the alarm module by following this diagram and unplugging the alarm module and jumpering these pins:

[CCM911]

Thanks, Sal!!

[CCM911]

Sal, do you know where the alarm module is in our cars?

Thanls.

[scarceller]

If I recall correctly for the 84 car it's somewhere behind the clock area. Accessible via the front trunk, removing the black cardboard cover just under the Passenger side windshield wiper.