Won't start this morning...

lesabre400 · Post by **lesabre400** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:31 am

I was cleaning up a couple things under the hood last night, one of them being the grease/oil stained rocker cover, and got water where I shouldn't have. Despite my best efforts at controling the small amount of water I was trickling out of the hose, the Tercel didn't want to fire this morning. I haven't had a chance to try anything yet (had to get to work), but I'm guessing it's ignition. The starter rotates the engine as normal, but there's not even a sputter - it usually starts immediately. Anyone else dumb enough to put water where it doesn't belong? Any little connectors or grounds I need to check? Weather's supposed to be warm today, so I'm hoping it will just dry out. Unless it has nothing to do with water at all, and I just knocked something loose. I ran the engine after cleaning the rocker cover, but didn't try starting it again after I finished cleaning everything else.
Rats.

sacwac · Post by **sacwac** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 9:35 am

Check the wires coming out of the ignition assembly. Or, maybe that signal wire for the ignition (a wire terminated with a plug that goes nowhere) is being grounded.

GTSSportCoupe · Post by **GTSSportCoupe** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:51 am

Most important thing: Pull of your distributor cap and make sure there is no water in the cap or distributor. Everytime I wash my engine this is the problem I have.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:23 pm

Ok - thanks to you both! I'll check it out tonight and hopefully I'll have a good report in the morning.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:08 am

Well, water in the distributor was the problem. Someone had installed a capacitor in between the distributor cap and body, so there wasn't a good seal. Things had corroded overnight and just needed to be cleaned up. Thanks, GTS - your tip meant I got to spend my night with my wife instead of my volt meter.
Also had time to fabricate some fog light brackets - I'll put up some pics once I'm done.

rust collector · Post by **rust collector** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 3:54 pm

Sooo, I basically did the same thing...

But my car runs, but it wonÃ‚Â´t idle, and it has a BAD miss when driving.

I gave the cap a good blast of wd40, and wiped it off after a while.

It didnÃ‚Â´t make a difference at all

So, I go and check anything I can think of.
I set the points
I check for vacuum leaks, and donÃ‚Â´t find any...

Any ideas?

Gasoline Fumes · Post by **Gasoline Fumes** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 4:06 am

Try drying out the inside of the distributor with a hairdryer. Even the slightest amount of moisture can affect it.

xirdneh · Post by **xirdneh** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:44 am

rust collector wrote: Sooo, I basically did the same thing...

But my car runs, but it wonÃ‚Â´t idle, and it has a BAD miss when driving.

I gave the cap a good blast of wd40, and wiped it off after a while.

It didnÃ‚Â´t make a difference at all

So, I go and check anything I can think of.
I set the points
I check for vacuum leaks, and donÃ‚Â´t find any...

Any ideas?

if you have no luck solving your problem give this a try.
may work or may not. no harm done either way.
disconnect the "b" vacuum switch. its usually the forward one on the right fender.
if nothing changes reconnect and good luck solving the problem.

the poor idle and bad miss could be ignition related or worst case a bad head gasket

rust collector · Post by **rust collector** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:14 am

Thanks, I will try a bit more...

Yes, it feels like a headgasket, almost, but I donÃ‚Â´t think it is, since the car ran ok before I washed it...
But I wonÃ‚Â´t say it isnÃ‚Â´t either.

If I understood right, the us tercels got the electronic distributor, since when?
Is it a lot of work to swap in a points car?
Any other cars use the same dist?

I am thinking/reading about a 7a swap, after I get an other car to drive, so anything that will keep it going for a bit longer would be great!

Fingers · Post by **Fingers** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:42 am

My terc, usually happy to reside in the garage, will start and idle, but then dies or runs like total crap after a night in the rain or when there is heavy dew in the morning. I still haven't tracked the problem down yet. Haven't tried. It will be back in the garage anyway, I'm gonna finish up the body work, clean up a few odds and ends, paint it, and let 'er set awaiting the snow. I picked up a new toy anyway-89 Corolla GTS. Gotta love those A-series engines!

Fingers KAJones

rust collector · Post by **rust collector** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:35 am

Ok, so I got a new dist cap, no change...

I took the dist off, and took it apart, cleaned it(and found it had little ball bearings on the plate the points mount on, dirty and sticking...)
Set the NEW points, no change...

Started to play with the carb, noticed the booster dripping big gulps of fuel at idle. Got it sorted pretty good, NO CHANGE!!! Well except I need to get the choke working again...

So I get pissed off BAD, and drive the shit out of it for a mile or two.

Works great! :huh:

Just got to get that choke going again...

It idles like it used to, but I can adjust it down to 500 rpm, and I could never do that before.

I ordered a new fuel pump, and it goes on in a couple days. It leaks a bit of oil...