...so...

I stumbled over this car for cheap not running with good compression and a newer timing belt. I figured I've owned several sweedish snowmobiles this will be no problem.. well it's becoming a problem.

It cranks, has spark, has fuel pressure. The check engine light does not come on at all (but it may be the bulb for all I know) but the service light and other appropriate idiots do show. It enters diganostic for the ignition on terminal 6 and showed sporadic crank position sensor, so I replaced with a known good one... no change. I also replaced the cam sensor with a known good one just because I had one, no change.

the most troubling symptom is that it will not enter diagnostic on terminal 2: I get a weak LED when the cable is plugged in. The LED lights fully when I press the button but then does nothing, it just goes back to weakly on. It won't enter any of the three modes. I swapped the middle computer with another one, no change. I have checked/cleaned all the grounds I can find (the bunch in front of the battery and the black wire from the CPU box to the engine), no change.

it does weakly fire one and sometimes two holes on cranking.. enough to hear a "whump" out of the exhaust but not enough to kick it. It has fired up once since I've had it, first key of the day, it ran for two seconds then it immediately died and went back to business as usual...

even more confusing, it won't fire on a squirt of ether, even tho it's got brand new plugs, cap and rotor, and shows spark at the HT lead

I'm in cleveland. It's cold. certainly not too cold for volvos, my other two sweedish snowmobiles merrily start every day. I've got the battery topped with a charger. It SHOULD start....

any ideas? It's driving me bananas. Anyone seen the diagnostic not work on terminal 2? how did you fix it?