Joining the Pig Pen!

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Nah, this is great advice! The engine is actually a 2F from the following year (1975). I like the screwdriver-on-a-drill move, thanks!
 
Oh man, nice little perk. Peeled the s***ty seat cover off my front bench seat. Was expecting to find pure foam and springs since I could see some foam sticking out the edges. This:

20160717_213643.jpg


Instead I found a damn-near fully intact seat! The PO had put some large sections of foam ON TOP of the existing seat. Typical wear in the butt cheek sections, but I am ecstatic:

20160717_213319.jpg
 
All right, I'm at a bit of an impasse, here. @ridefastflyfar graciously spent a couple hours this evening helping me confirm ignition timing and function. I got the gas tank back late last week and installed Monday night. Fresh gas, ready to rock.

Something's amiss. We verified we're getting spark, and the carb is working as desired, with the accelerator pump squirting in gas as normal. There is so much gas coming through the carb, in fact, that you can see a puddle in the bottom of the intake manifold (i.e. flooded is an understatement). Here's the weird part: The plugs are DRY. Somehow no gas is making it into the cylinders.

We pulled the valve cover to verify the valves are moving up and down - all good there. In addition, there is pressure coming out of the tailpipe so you know the pistons are moving up and down and moving air around. The question is why this air movement is not drawing fuel from the manifold into the combustion chambers!?

Is it possible that the manifold is SO flooded it's preventing any gas from reaching the spark plugs? That makes zero sense. I welcome your thoughts!
 
That makes zero sense. I welcome your thoughts!

Let all the standing gas in the intake evaporate then try starting fluid to see it you can get it to fire, carb cleaner will work in a pinch, basically don’t pump the gas pedal and have someone crank the engine and give it a couple little squirts. It should fire and run momentarily if everything is set correctly with your distributor and you have compression.
 
Thanks for the input. I'm back to thinking it's a spark issue. Last night I:

  • Pulled the carb back off, cleaning all accessible areas with Carb Cleaner. Not a full dissection/rebuild, just a look-over.
  • Mopped up the gas sitting in the manifold
  • Double checked the timing - found TDC on #1 and verified the valves were closed (wiggle test on the rockers when I pulled the valve cover)
  • Re-installed the carb, assured fuel was squirting in and the fuel cut-off solenoid was functional
  • Sprayed a fair amount of carb cleaner into the top while cranking - no dice
  • Pulled all the plugs, used a syringe to drip a few CC's of gas right into the cylinders. Reinstalled the plugs and tried to fire - no dice.
So this morning I pulled the #1 spark plug and tested for spark. The previous spark that existed is no longer present. Chasing it backwards I found that I'm no longer getting power to the coil/igniter assembly - the "hot" wire that I have connected is no longer hot.

Is there a fuse for the ignition? Perhaps that's a nOOb question, but I'm hoping there is so I don't have to track down a melted wire.
 
Would just jumper a hot wire from the battery and try to make it run, if you can make it run with temporary fuel and power then at least you know you have something that will work once you track down all the rest of your unknown issues.
 
Would just jumper a hot wire from the battery and try to make it run, if you can make it run with temporary fuel and power then at least you know you have something that will work once you track down all the rest of your unknown issues.

... Ah, of course that would work. Thanks for the forest vs. trees insight ;).

Days like this I wish I worked from home - I'd run out and try it immediately. This will have to wait until this evening.
 
...Is there a fuse for the ignition? Perhaps that's a nOOb question, but I'm hoping there is so I don't have to track down a melted wire.

Hey, look at that. There's a fuse there. Odd that this schematic doesn't show it as connecting to anything, however. Still, good place to start!

73JF55 - Ignition Fuse.jpg
 
Make sure you put the rotor back in.

Rough time the motor with it at TDC.

Check for 12v at coil.

Check points gap.

Check for spark after that at coil wire.
 
Sorry, jumped the gun and missed the troubleshooting.

Ign fuse or ignition switch would be the guess
I

No worries, I appreciate all input! Per @J Mack 's recommendation, I jumped the coil straight from the battery. I verified spark, sprayed some ether into the carb top, and cranked. Nothing. I even had a new coil I threw in for good measure.

It HAS to be the timing. The one thing I haven't done, in retrospect, is assure the dizzy's signal generator is clocked correctly. Would that cause this issue?

Otherwise.... Poop. I've taken the dizzy out three times to make sure I'm at TDC. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
 
Last edited:
What distributor are you running? Some DUI have two cap notches. It can prevent it running due to spark offset.

It's possible to have the wires offset if it's the stock dist.
 
DoubleNickels, How did the engine fuse look? Do you have juice there at the fuse panel?

Fuse block looked good - all fuses intact. I'll be taking measurements (continuity) across all terminals tonight, maybe stumbling across some corrosion? Pics:

FB-001.jpg

FB-002.jpg


What distributor are you running? Some DUI have two cap notches. It can prevent it running due to spark offset. It's possible to have the wires offset if it's the stock dist.

Running a large-cap Toyota, 1984 (below). I think you're saying it's possible to have it ~120-degrees off since the screw holes line up, yeah? I'll quadruple check.

Dizzy.jpg
 
Following up on myself (conversing with myself is nothing new, sorry you're all witness to it):

Hey, look at that. There's a fuse there. Odd that this schematic doesn't show it as connecting to anything, however. Still, good place to start!

View attachment 1297879

I'd be willing to bet two fuses tie into a single "terminal", much like this FJ40 schematic from 1973 (about the same era):

Fuse Block.jpg
 
I think you're saying it's possible to have it ~120-degrees off since the screw holes line up, yeah? I'll quadruple check.
When you set the distributor in did you confirm the engine was TDC on the compression stroke for number one cylinder and the rotor was pointing to number one on the distributor?
 
I was thinking early on, maybe 180 degrees out, I've done it before. If I remember right though, it would pop and try to fire.
 
I was thinking early on, maybe 180 degrees out, I've done it before. If I remember right though, it would pop and try to fire.

On a V-8 if you’re exactly 180 yes it will pop, on his 4 cylinder if he’s out just a tooth or two with a large cap the rotor will be out of phase between contacts and it’s hard to tell were the spark is going and when so it’s possible he has spark but no pop through the crab or exhaust. :meh:
 
The aftermarket HEI sometimes have two cap notches. No need to worry about that on the stock Toyota ones.

Roll the engine over to TDC(check to make sure it's on the compression TDC) and pop the cap off.

I have a hard time imagining that regardless of timing you didn't at least get a back fire.

Dumb question but you are using the factory Toyota ignitor with that distributor, correct?
 
Don't know if it will help you. You said spark is gone now? I had a 78 FJ40 that quit on me once. It was the connector for fuel cut off on carb. If it was running and you pushed down on connector engine would die. Pull up on it engine would start right up.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom