93 Montero,3.0 liter - Wife drove to store and back home. Never started again <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

It turns over but no fire. It's getting fuel
Pulled the codes, tells me "Normal state"

I thought coil....nope! bought a new one
Power Transitor....don,t know
Optic Senser in distributor....don't know
Is there a way I can test these.

What else may I be over looking.
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Pull one plug wire and put a spark plug on it. Crank and see if you have spark. If you do not have spark, try replacing that wire (I keep one or two wires from old sets). If you still have a no go and you have a known good coil it's time to look higher up the chain <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Oh yes, I meant to add that you need to have the plug grounded the same way it would be when installed in the block... Any good ground (bare metal) should work.

IF you DO HAVE spark, pull the plug you just pulled the wire from. Can you smell / see fuel on it. If you can, it might be weak spark but I'd think with a new coil you'd be alright.

Thanks for the reply,
Ya, I did that spark test. no spark.
that's why I bought the coil. but still no spark.
So I'm wondering if it could be the power transistor
or the Distributor signal generator (Photo Optic Sensing Unit) and if there is a way to test these things. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Instructions for testing the powere transistor are found here:

Thread

Frank

Ok: Easy way to test optical distributor. Disconnect connector from dist. With key on, the following shoud be present on the harness side.
Red wire- Battery voltage
Black wire- good ground
Green wire- 5 volts
White wire- 5 volts
If this is ok, reconnect harness and crank engine while monitoring the green and then the white wires with a volt meter. They should toggle between 0 and 5 volts. (a digital meter will average this signal), so you will see approx. 2.5 volts. You can trigger the power transistor for test purposes by hooking up the clip from a test lamp to battery positive and tapping on the white wire at the power transistor with the key on. this should produce a spark at the coil every time the test lamp is tapped and released.

Good info. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Frank

Hey, Thanks guys for the help, first of all.

Ok, letÆs go over this.

FrankR said to test the transistor this way:



And I got the same result as Shamer did:



But at the end of ShamerÆs problem, it turned out he did not have to replace the transistor
after all:



OK, that said, I tested the transistor the way conner said, and I got good spark out the coil.
I also did the test on the wires going to the distributor, with the harness disconnected
I got the voltages conner said would be there.
I also checked the voltages on the green & white wires while cranking the engine
And they did toggle from 0-5 volts. However, the white wire would read 0 or 12 volts
After I stopped cranking the engine depending where the engine stopped.

Anyway IÆm still at a loss as to what could be wrong.
It seems things are working the way they should.

I've replaced the coil, with a new one.
I swapped distributors with another one that I had.
I put in new coil & plug wires.
And did the tests.
But still have no fire. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I haven't replaced the transistor because the parts stores
around here don't have it, and the closest dealer is a two hour drive from here. But I guess I'll have to bite the bullet sooner or later. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

Thanks again <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

A couple of questions:

1) Did you replace the cap and rotor?

2) Does the engine try to fire at all?

3) When you say you have no fire, are you grounding the plug threads?

4) Are you certain that when you installed either distributor that you aligned it properly and the crankshaft timing mark was on TDC on the compression stroke instead of the exhaust stroke? Careful here, 'cause it'll fool you. There are tunnels inside the cap that move the firing contact point for #1 and #4 about 90 degrees. On TDC compression stroke, a rough idea is that the rotor should point at the middle of the firewall behind the engine. Another way to set the distributor is to align the dimple on the gear with the line on the distributor foot, hold the relationship and set the distributor with the foot over the bolt hole and release the shaft allowing the gear to engage and drop. When it bottoms, the rotor should point toward the middle of the firewall.

5) Is it possible that the valve timing belt is broken? If you remove the black plastic cover on the driver side head you can see the timing belt. When the crankshaft in on TDC compression stroke, the dimple in the cam gear should be aligned with the mark on the housing. Again, be careful because I think the mark is fairly close on the exhaust stroke, but dead on the mark on the compression stroke.

Frank

The cap & rotor are new.
But I'm not getting spark from the coil.

The timing belt is good & rotor is in time.
(TDC on the compression stroke, rotor pointing
between #2 & #6 tower, #1 tunnel on distributor) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

The dealer wants $223.12 plus... for coil, transistor
and bracket. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> They won't sale the transistor alone.
Don't know why. Do you know where I can get just the
transistor? Not sure that's the problem, but I really
don't want to bow to dealer if it isn't. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

I'd try to find one in a junkyard and get the entire assembly and bracket.

Car-Part

Frank