you have the gm service manual? thats the only one i can think of that would be detailed enough i think. i have a diagram of where the wires go on the pcm all it is, is wire colors and pin numbers you could test those for continuity

thanx, I have the factory manual, but everything is really hard to find and is usually broken into small diagrams that need to be tracked over several pages

takes forever to find anything in it and as far as I can tell, there IS NO firing order or plug wiring info in there as 3 of us here have looked for it, but we did find it thru google

got DR appts today, but hopefully will have it running this weekend

had a change to look closely at that diagram - not for a vin "3" car, or type II ign

well, checking wires has been too much for my poor ol' back, I've given up on that - talked to a friend who is also a retired mechanic - he says he might know someone with a scanner to read values that the computer is seeing - hopefully I'll know more in a few days

talking on phone today to a guy that got two bad MAF sensors from same folks that rebuilt the one I bought back when this all started - that was over a month ago, and one of the first things we tried was starting it with the MAF unplugged - cranked it a lot, but got no start & no errors

that should have been a hint because we should have gotten a #34 for the MAF unplugged

today, we hooked up three batteries and cranked for over 5 min with MAF unplugged - error light came on & it started - runs badly this way, but I've got a new (not rebuilt) MAF on order - might have it by Saturday and maybe that will fix it - seems the one I got was shorted and killed the 'puter so it couldn't start the car or send an error light

will post to let you know

Yes the GM PCMs were very finicky in the late 80'* and early 90'*. I even remember doing what the service manual called a tap test. If the car had drivability issues any you weren't able to find the issue right away the manual actually had you tap on the PCM with a screw driver and monitor engine performance. To bad you don't have a scanner because I've found in the past that most PCMs that are on the fritz won't communicate or they won't give you hard data. If you lived close I would loan you my tech 1.

that was it - put in the new MAF and it started & ran well

Wow all that work for a 20 min fix. Sorry brother glad to hear its running.

oh well, I'm old and don't really have much else to do : )

at least its fixed