I've had my Minicab for a couple months now, and it's been great, until the other day. It sat for about a week, and I went to start it up for a drive, it would turn over, but not start. I sprayed starter fluid in it, with no luck... I've been trying to get a spark plug out to see if it's getting spark, and haven't been able to find a socket that'll work to remove it. I honestly don't think it's getting spark. I checked all the fuses under the dash, they were all fine. I should also note that the temperature dropped considerably over the week that it sat (it got below freezing most nights), not sure if that's a factor, but I'm hoping someone will have some insight. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Pull teh plug wire off, and stick a Phillips screwdriver in the boot so it is in teh contacts. Lay the screw driver on the frame. Position it so the handle and boot, are keeping the shaft 3/8 to 1/2-inch away from the metal, and crank it. You should see a good white spark. If not check the coil.
Thank you! Didn't get a spark, as I suspected. Now I need to figure out my next course of action; is buying a new distributor the next step, or is there something else that I could test to make sure that's the problem?
First check the coil. Try the same trick you just did, with the coil lead to the distributor. You should get spark. If you don’t pull the cap off the distributor, and try opening and closing the points, and see if you get a spark. If you don’t find points you probably have an “igniter” or other control box, and they can go bad. You can check the resistance on the coil itself to see if it is good. Not sure what readings yours should have, but there are resistances you should find if you measure between the two leads, and between the secondary, and the leads. The reading is different depending on how many windings the coil has, and whether it has an internal resistor, so I can’t even guess at what yours should be.
I think it has direct ignition coils that fit over top the spark plugs, and I don't think any of them are firing.
You were talking about a distributor, and if you have coils on the plugs, you don’t have a distributor. You will have control box and sensor at either the cam or flywheel, which tells the controller where the engine is in the cycle. Either way, does the coil(s) have power? Quick run down on coils they have a power feed, a trigger wire on the negative side, and a high tension discharge which goes to the plugs either through a distributor cap, or directly if you have a coil on plug setup. So first question is, does the coil have power to it? If it has power, does it spark when the trigger wire is connected and disconnected?
I ended up ordering a new distributor from Japan and that solved everything. Thanks for all the help!
