Mysterious no start 1996 Olds 88

My 1996 Oldsmobile 88 3.8L will not start. It died all of a sudden and when I opened the hood I found out that the tensioner bracket had broken. Replaced that along with a new belt but will not run. It turns over but just won't catch. No spark in any of the plugs and I can hear the fuel pump turning on when I try to start it. But after picking a few peoples' brains, I think that it might be a timing issue. If there a way to check the timing without taking everything apart? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

the no start on your car is caused by 2 - 3 things that ARE wrong 1 the timing gear and or chain are either stretched (chain) or missing a tooth or very worn(teeth on timing gear), this problem also cause the coil(s) to go out....I just had this problem on my 88 lincoln continental towncar, also on the 3800 series engine it can also be the crankshaft position sensor ( crankshaft sensor) if you have a book look and find the cranshaft sensor and see what all it does and what it can cause the car to do and no to do.
Charles Johnson

P.S. check the distributor cap for little lines on the inside of it, theselittle lines will look like pencil marks these are cracks and if they are present then the distributor cap need to be replaced under the rotor button check for water and any traces of moistiour as this can cause it not to distribute the spark as needed. not yelling just stressing a very very important point DO NOT REMOVE THE distributor out of the engine Unless you absolutely have to and unless you are extremely good and qualified as this will throw the timing off major time. been there done that lol I messed my timing up bad and it was down for 6 months with me trying to get it running again, Finally got it though.

Ok, no dist. on this engine, it is possible the crank sensor or harness to it at the balancer were damaged.

"Ok, no dist. on this engine, it is possible the crank sensor or harness to it at the balancer were damaged."

its possible that it could be the crank sensor, Also yesterday I just found out on a 96 oldsmobile 88 ls that if the # 6 and or #1 connecting rod and cap is uneven or too tight then it will just click when trying to start it kind of like a weak or dead battery or a weak starter does. if the harness is damaged (the possibility is about 15% chance of that) then you will most likely end up having to either rewire the car because that could be a one piece wiring harness, However some of them have quick disconnect areas on the harness and that could be one of them, but if not and it cost too much to replace the harness then you could always try and find another car body in as good as shape as yours or better shape and transfer your engine to that car careful with the harness that's in it though; the wires will be kinda rough to move around and some could break . On a more likely note its 95% chance that its the crank sensor id check it first and then the the timing.....some cars are equipped with what they call a spark arrester which you have to remove in order to set the timing...check the timing with it in if its got one of these, then advance your timing according to the y way the book shows you, and replace the arrester again and make sure the timing is still dead on....MAKE SURE the car is in the OFF position before you return the spark arrester as this could do some major damage to the electronics on the car. I know that 88 lincolns have it not sure how many others have an arrester.
Charles

Whoa, tight/uneven bearing cap, when does this happen??> Spark arrester, set timing, none of this exists on this car, again there is no dist and no adjustments. Absolutely nothing you state applies to this engine except the crank sensor, 15% possible harness damage, again, where does this come from? Plus the harness from the cps to the icm is any easy fix as it frays against the block.

this happens when a bearing either wears uneven because of one bolt on the cap being tighter than the other or from a bearing fixing to go our or that has already gone out. when you say "don't have" as far as the timing goes what exactly do you mean all cars and trucks have a timing method even on distributorless cars their timing is controlled by vaccum advance most times is the reason i am asking. the 15 % chance of the harness or wires being damaged comes from the Gm shops they are usually protected pretty good unless they are very old, when i talked to them they said there is a 15 % probability of it being the harness.
charles

Due respect here, you really need to do some research, again there is no way to set the timing, there is nothing to turn or adjust,there is no vacuum advance, it it controlled by an ign. module and pcm. The poster states it turns over, so there is no reason to think a 15 year old engine suddenly developed uneven bearing cap torque! This bearing business is irrelevant to this condition. Check with " the dealer" about the design of this ignition system.

Max is 100% correct. GM's 3.8 actually hasn't had a distributor for more than 20 years. Also this post was started 1 1/2 years ago. I'm sure the problem has been fixed by now.