Van was running great, suddenly will not start, help for a newbie!

[lamont]

My 87 van ran fine 2 weeks ago when I last drove it......now it will not start. Sprayed starting fluid...still will not hit. Pulled plug wire and stuck on a plug...no fire. I Am new to working on these vans and do not know much. Can someone steer me in the right direction for what I should check next? Van is manual trans with 168k miles.

[timsrv]

Hi & welcome to TVT! No spark can be a few different things, but most common failures are the ignition coil (inside distributor) followed by the igniter (on top of the air flow meter). Here's a couple threads that may help you. Tim

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/showthread.php?631-dead-van

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/showthread.php?1557-Starting-problem-checked-coil-cap-and-rotor

[lamont]

I love these vans until you have to work on them!:no: In all my years of 'shade tree mechanicing', this is the worst time I have ever had removing a distributor cap!
Here is what I found out so far:

12+ volts going to the positive side of the coil.
2.2 ohms resistance from positive to negative side of coil
From positive side to high output terminal on top of coil my ohm meter does nothing which indicates there is no connection between the 2 points.

So sounds like it is the coil.....or tell me if I am missing something.

When my new coil arrives, after installing can I just hold the cap in place and see if it will start? That way if the problem is deeper I would already be a step ahead not having to remove that cap again.

[Burntboot]

Pulling the cap is indeed a contortionists nightmare, unless of course you pull the passengers side engine cover, once that is done, you will marvel at how easy it really is.
It takes less than 10 mins to pull, which is more than made up for with ease of access once it's off.
IIRC, in order to change the coil, you need to pull the distributor, the pass side pan MUST come off to get the distributor out.
Just make sure you pull it apart with the engine lined up at firing TDC #1 and you shouldn't have any problems.
I wouldn't rely on holding the cap in place for testing, with the cover off it is too easy to access the bolts holding the cap in place and then you have nothing to guess at.
BB

[JFratzke]

You can change the coil without removing the entire distributor. I am guessing you pulled the distributor because you couldn't remove the two inside screws that hold the coil onto the distributor? I sprayed them both with Twister penetrating fluid and one came off easily. The other didn't but the new coil came with new screws so I used my dremel to grind the head off of the screw. Then I pulled off the coil and used a pair of pliers to 'unscrew' the post. New coil popped right on. All together it took about an hour.

And unfortunately it ended up being my igniter. But now I have a new coil!

[lamont]

I did not remove the distributor...so far just the cap and the top 2 screws in the coil and ran out of time.
What is this about removing the passenger side panel? I did not know anything about that...how do you do it?

[timsrv]

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/showthread.php?26-Accessing-the-van-engine!

[lamont]

Thanks a million...I did search the forum but could not locate it based on the words I was using.
One more question: My coil dust cover was brittle and shattered almost as I touched it. Is the dust cover required or will it be ok with out it?
Love this forum and thanks for all the help!

[timsrv]

It will be fine without the dust cover.

[lamont]

My van lives again...new coil fixed the problem. Thanks for all the help and a special thank you to llamavan for the detailed instructions on removing the access panel!