No-start woes... QA my troubleshooting

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whirlybirdbrewing

whirlybirdbrewing

SILVER Star
10 Year
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Since I'd venture to say that 99% of you all tend to know more about these trucks than I...

Driving down the road the other day doing 60 mph and the engine dies. Pull off to the side with little fanfare. Try to start things back up and it turns but nothing starts rumbling to life. Tow it to my place.

Fuel or spark right? Fuel looks fine; you can see fuel in the filter, the pump is new, and the carb sight glass is half full (or half empty as I was pissed it wasn't starting).

Spark... Nothing on the plug 1. Nothing on the center wire to the dizzy. Thinking ignition coil?

Per 2F FSM (8-6), I checked the voltage and I get approx 12V for each of the tests. Ohm meter gets nothing between the + and - posts nor does it get anything between + and high tension posts.

Am I on to something here? New ignition coil time?

If that is the case, will any suitable (read NAPA or Autozone) do or should be ordering some hard to find part from some place that won't get to my door today?
 
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Well I installed a new ignition coil and it still won't spark. Anything I'm missing?
 
Engine fuse?
Fusible link at battery?
 
All the fuses are good.

Just ran out to the garage and checked the fusible link at the battery. Appears to be okay. ~12V off each of the 3 pins.
 
Last thing on the list: Igniter.

No way really to check it 100%.
Used ones come up for sale in the classifieds.

Search: igniter.

image.webp
 
So even if the coil terminals are showing 12V it could still be the actual igniter?

I've also seen discussions about signal generators and checking the gap on them. Is this something I should check or would an issue with the signal generator manifest itself as something completely different?
 
Check the center wire from coil to dizzy for excess resistance? Internal cracked wire? Swap a different wire in?
 
Center wire shows about 10K resistance which is less than the FSM limit (25K). I hate to throw $$ at the igniter if it isn't the culprit but I'm at a bit of an impasse right now.
 
ignitor- output nailed it. same thing happened to me. ignitor swap thanks to a close by cruiser friend, and back on the road to work...
 
borrow one from a known working rig for a proper test...this one is sort of process of elimination trouble shooting...if the diz turns and there isn't too much corrosion of the cap contacts, if there are 12 volts to the coil, if the cables are good and there is still no spark, then the suspects would be the coil and the ignitor...you've already swapped the coil...
 
Any easy way to check the signal generator? Someone else mentioned if the igniter didn't get the signal from the dizzy, it wouldn't ever send a spark.
 
Signal gen is gapped correctly (8-28 FSM) and the igniter gets proper volts. The only thing I was curious about is if there is a way to test the dizzy and see if it is indeed putting out the signal to the igniter to fire whenever its supposed to.
 
All omens are pointing at most likely igniter, or less likely distributor. Neither of these are available new. Both of which every FJ60 owner should own a spare.

You can't go wrong by buying another one of each. Igniter first. Required investment now for a 30 year old vehicle. Everything is wearing out.
 
IPOR has one for me to pick up on Monday. I'm not closing out this trouble ticket yet but first two rounds are on me if this works!

:beer::beer:

Since I couldn't get an igniter today, I picked this up instead:

1s - Copy.webp

Seems to be running alright and you know what they say right? Two is one and one is none.
 
yep, good to have a spare! careful you don't get too comfy in that thing...
 
Alrighty....

New (used) igniter and coil combo installed and absolutely, 100%..... not fixed. :bang:

I think I'm going to replace the cap and rotor on the dizzy because it is the only thing left that hasn't been replaced and will cost me all of about $20 to fix.

I checked (with a spark tester) the center high tension terminal and still no lights when she turns. On the plus side, I have an extra igniter / coil combo. Spare parts stash is growing.

What else am I missing?
 
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do you know if it was a working ignitor? sorry, I have to ask...the test is to swap in a KNOWN GOOD unit...
 
ehh... I bought it from IPOR as they had one on hand. It did not come from the belly of a truck that drove up to my house in full operating condition but I have no reason to believe that it doesn't work. I'm sure if I didn't buy it, they would have stuck it in some other truck. While it is possible that two 30 year-old parts are broken, I'm more inclined to believe that the two "bullet proof ignition parts" aren't the problem.

If I make the bold (and maybe not quite 110% accurate) assumption that the igniter is not the problem, what's next? Tear apart the dizzy? Once I install the new cap/rotor for the dizzy tomorrow, I'll hook up a volt meter and check the signal generator output from the dizzy but I wasn't planning on taking it out and disassembling it.

The tach plays no part in igniter output does it? Fig 8-4 shows an output to the tach but I didn't see an input anywhere that I needed to chase. Mine was working at the time of the initial mishap and post engine cutoff, with the clutch out, it still had a gauge indication inside the truck.

I was trying to avoid ripping everything out and bench testing the system but avoiding that seems less likely.
 
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