My 1989 244 DL is using a lot of gas. I checked the trouble codes. The knock sensor isn't working properly. I put in a new knock sensor. It made no difference. I did a mechanical check of the knock sensor with a hammer to the blockand a timing gun... no response in timing. I tried correcting for the retarded timing due to the faulty knock sensor circuit by rotating the distributor, but rotating the distributor on this car does not change the timing! Arrgghh. I checked current going to the knock sensor; it is .024 volts! Not the 1.5 to 5 volts the Haynes says it's supposed to get. I checked voltage inside the car by probing the knock sensor wires near the computer... .024 volts. So, the wires from the computer to the sensor are good...no shorts there. Does this mean bad computer? Where does the current to the knock sensor originate? How can I follow this back to figure out how to restore the knock sensor circuit so that the engine isn't running with constantly retarded timing (thinking that the car is pinging all of the time when it's not).

Thanks in advance (notice the timing pun)

The Yodellin' Cowboy