HELP! FJ60 with a non-stock ignition.

[Cruisin2Ski91]

Hi All,

My truck is not igniting. Took it to the shop. Mechanic said that the ignition is not stock - looks like a GM one (or at least a GM distributor). Mechanic said he wasn't sure where to start or what parts to order. You all seem to pretty good at this stuff Any suggestions?

 

[DrRock]

Can you provide some pictures of what you currently have? Also, how did you establish that you have no spark or did the mechanic do this?

Cheers, James

 

[dmjay]

Try ChatGPT.

 

[DrRock]

Try ChatGPT.

Huh?! That LLM won’t have the level of detail yet to diagnose such a use case. It might get close though.

 

[Cruisin2Ski91]

Can you provide some pictures of what you currently have? Also, how did you establish that you have no spark or did the mechanic do this?

Cheers, James

Hey DrRock,
Trucks at shop so I can try to snag some photos this weekend or Monday. The mechanic established no spark. I tested the battery and I know that it is getting fuel. What level would you say this is if I were to try and work through it?

 

[70 FJ40]

@DrRock is right. Pictures help a lot. There are folks on here that are very knowledgeable and helpful. But without good information and pictures its difficult to help you diagnose the problem and the correct way to go about the fix.

I have also found you'll either need to learn a fair bit about fixing and maintaining your own truck or be ready to spend some time finding a qualified mechanic that's willing to work on it and then spend some pretty good money to pay the guy. (If your current mechanic doesnt know where to start with something as basic as no spark, he probably isnt your guy.) All that said, these fj60s are actually pretty mechanicaly simple so with patience and some help from IH8MUD you can do most of it.

Get some pictures of you current coil, distributor, and wiring and post them up here. All this should be on the passenger of the motor and on top of the fender. Any info you can get from your mechanic on how he came to the current diagnosis will also be helpful. If he can't tell you, this is another indicator that he's not the mechanic for you and your 60.

 

[Cruisin2Ski91]

@DrRock is right. Pictures help a lot. There are folks on here that are very knowledgeable and helpful. But without good information and pictures its difficult to help you diagnose the problem and the correct way to go about the fix.

I have also found you'll either need to learn a fair bit about fixing and maintaining your own truck or be ready to spend some time finding a qualified mechanic that's willing to work on it and then spend some pretty good money to pay the guy. (If your current mechanic doesnt know where to start with something as basic as no spark, he probably isnt your guy.) All that said, these fj60s are actually pretty mechanicaly simple so with patience and some help from IH8MUD you can do most of it.

Get some pictures of you current coil, distributor, and wiring and post them up here. All this should be on the passenger of the motor and on top of the fender. Any info you can get from your mechanic on how he came to the current diagnosis will also be helpful. If he can't tell you, this is another indicator that he's not the mechanic for you and your 60.

I am learning that you are correct. I will get some photos on here tomorrow at some point and hopefully that can at least get me pointed in the right direction. I'll double check with him tomorrow, but essentially he said it was GM ignition/distributor (I'll clarify tomorrow) and that the wiring had been spliced and thus not sure where to begin... Idk, again, I'll get more details tomorrow. Thanks in advance for the future insights!

 

[Cruisin2Ski91]

Can you provide some pictures of what you currently have? Also, how did you establish that you have no spark or did the mechanic do this?

Cheers, James

Just following up here. It was determined that connection to the new distributer was not well done. It was a bit of a mess with wires. Cleaned all that up, got the correct connections and squared away. Also replaced some power steering issues as a side project. Now she fires right up with no issues! SOURCE: I found a local guy who works on old Volkswagens and actually has the same rig as mine (he did an engine swap for a BMW diesel in his). He's my new go.