Okay, my friends and I went off-roading Saturday and I had no problems while on the trail (a lot of fun though!). We then left and stopped in a tourist town roughly 30 minutes from the trail head, still in the hills, to get a bite to eat. Upon finishing our pizza, we got in our rigs to head for home. My friend drove off in his XJ, but my pickup wouldn't start. I figured my battery was dead because we've had problems with it holding a charge, so I keyed him up on the CB and he pulled up to give me a jump.

Didn't do a thing.

After some curses, headaches, and bruises, we realized that we were getting no arc. Neither at the distributor nor the coil. Since then we've replaced the coil and the "ignitor assembly" but still nothing.

While trying to make progress last night my father and I were hovering over the hood when I heard a sound (with the ignition still on). I thought it was a wire arcing, he said it was a relay going on and off. The sun had set though and we waited until today to work on it.

After some playing around, and looking at a wiring schematic out of a repair book, we discovered that by wiggling the thermo switch two we could not only induce the previous sound we heard, but also the "emmissions relay" would click near the passenger side fender well.

If this has anything to do with my loss of arc or not I do not know. I'm only twenty and bought this truck with the intent of using it to learn about automotive mechanics. I've got friends and family that know a thing or two though, so any advice could probably be understood by them.

Right now my baby is parked in the yard dead in it's tracks. I wish I knew what to do, but don't have a clue.

Much thanks in advance,
La Bomba

P.S. 1983 Pick-up, 4X4, and I live in California w/ all those pesky emissions laws.