Need some help, car won't start

[TbTalon94]

Lincoln LS w/ 02 Camaro LS1/t56 swap.

I was in the process of changing the aftermarket gauges
Autometer
-Tach
-Speedo
-Water temp
-fuel level

Swapped them out with just different style autometer gauges. Decided I knew how the wiring went and unplugged everything...went to put in the new gauges and realized stuff wasn't lining up how I wanted and I'd need to lengthen/shorten some wires so I decided not to run the new gauges yet and do the wiring later. Did my best to plug the old gauges back in and thought I had everything right.
Started the car up and the tach was working, speedo was at 0 obviously, gas gauge was WAY off so I obviously had that hooked up wrong, same with water temp.
It was running fine no stumble or anything, then all of a sudden shut off like I turned it off. Went to restart and wouldn't even engage the starter. Took the key out and went to restart and it just cranks, won't fire. I can't hear the fuel pump priming but I never really could hear it before. It cranks and cranks and cranks just won't fire. Sometimes it will crank and crank then just stop cranking like the signal is cut off.

Is there an MPI or fuel pump relay/fuse I could have blown with the fuel level gauge? That's the only thing i'm thinking. The Tach/Speedo have an IN signal so those shouldn't effect anything, also the water temp gauge is a stand-alone gauge with it's own sensor. Shouldn't effect the ecu.

[slo4cyl]

What is your battery voltage? If its to low the ecu might not allow starter action ect.

[TbTalon94]

Optima Red-Top, Volts were 13.9 when i tested it. Should be plenty to run the ecu. Remember the car was running and suddenly shut off, now just cranks and cranks. Won't fire or spudder or anything.

I don't THINK i can hear the fuel pump priming, but I never really payed attention before to see how loud it actually is.

[slo4cyl]

what year is the car?

[snickerlicker]

Do you have a fuel pressure gauge? Or one you can borrow? Is there a shrader valve on the fuel rail you can check to see if you have pressure at the rail? Should tell you right there if you have fuel or not.

[AutoMods]

look into the vats (vehicle anti-theft system) . most people deactivate it with a tune, but some people build an electronic circuit board or something like that iirc to get around the vats. Maybe you disturbed the vats. I believe vats will let the car turn over but it won't fire.

I believe the pcm grounds a wire that goes to the fuel pump relay. it does that to prime and it also disconnects the ground if you motor isn't turning over or running for safety reasons.

I'm not sure what would happen if you accidently sent +12v or +5v to a signal pcm wire by accident. not sure if it could hurt the pcm and cause weird problems. the tach and speedo signals come from the pcm, the pcm also knows water temp but I would guess your gauge gets water temp from its own sender.

I also have all the fittings and gauge if you want to borrow them to put a fuel gauge on the fuel rail to monitor fuel pressure. you could also rig the fuel pump to stay on all the time by just sending 12v to it with no relay.

[TbTalon94]

Don't have any way to read fuel pressure at the moment. I'm going to first see if the fuel pump even primes. Going to get to it and see what wire he ran the gauge from. I can access the ecu easily but I don't think looking in it will show if i harmed anything. The car cranks VERY easily, doesn't sputter or anything. Just cranks and doesn't smell like gas.

[Stg4raddo]

id start by unplugging the gauges. or at least the fuel level.

the vats would start then die once or twice then after you lock it out it will crank and no start. If you had a gm dash it would flash the red light/keysymbol while cranking. the system will time out after 20-60 mins give or take. then you can try again.

if you sent voltage down a pcm wire if your lucky it has some kind of diode protection so u cant force a voltage into it. worst case the pcm is dead.

find the fuel pump relay and look at pins 85/86 with a multimeter and u should beable to tell if ur getting a trigger sent from the pcm. or pull the fuel pump relay and jump 30 to 87 with a decent size wire and pump will run at all times.

if the factory fuel system was retained check the inertia switch in the passenger kick just make sure it hasnt poped for what ever reason.

[TbTalon94]

Well if that's how the Vats works, then that is definatly not it. I'll check those things Tyler and get back to everyone. Thanks for the help and keep them coming if you have any other ideas!

[slo4cyl]

Is the car a 02 as well? I'm thinking it sounds like a anti theft issue, that is all ran by the bcm I believe not the pcm. It's been a while since I've worked on anti theft problem and don't know much about the Ford system, but I can read into how they work on our diagnostic software if I know the year of the car.