No Spark

[Mackd]

Hello All or anyone that can help. My 1988 4WD van died. it wants to start, but it turns out I have no spark. I think the igniter is good as I may have gotten the last one from Toyota a couple of years back. I also have a spare that I hooked up and still no spark. Distributor? Coil inside the Distributor? It was running fine until this happened three days ago. Also, if it is the igniter and both of mine are bad, and they are no longer made, what's the solution? The kicker is, I just got it back from paint and body and the old rig is looking pretty good. I would really appreciate any advise the community is willing to give.

There is one thing I forgot to add. The Check Engine Light came on along with the Radiator Indicator Light. It was not running warm when this happened. In fact, this happened early in the morning the engine had not even come up to full temperature (but I did let it warm up before driving off as I always do).

[kamesama980]

If the CEL came on, the first step is to pull the code. I suspect you'll have a distributor-pickup related code. no pickup signal = no signal to the igniter to spark. if you have a scope you can check the output of the pickup otherwise you're stuck just checking wiring.

[Mackd]

Thank you Kamesama980 -
I haven't had a chance to check it out since this happened (work and all), but I will follow your advise. In the meantime I ordered new plugs, plug wires, distributor cap w/ rotor, a coil, and a rebuilt distributor. If nothing else I want to make sure that I am starting with a healthy ignition system.

I really appreciate you responding to my post. I will update this post when I find out what's going on. Hopefully it will be of assistance to someone else in need of help.

[Mackd]

Follow up -
I replaced the distributor, coil, distributor cap, rotor, and plug wires (the plugs were in good shape). It started right up and ran for about 10 miles then the engine died again - no spark. Ground problem? If so, any idea where? This definitely feels like a lose or faulty wire problem. The wires are a bit "crunchy" in this thing, and my goal to to rebuild the harness, but does anyone have any idea what this might be? On the upside by replacing all of the parts mentioned earlier, at least I know those parts are healthy (at least I hope ).