Car will not start

[hberdan]

I'm thinking timing belt also. I was told by previous owner that it "looked" to be in good shape when a new water pump was put on.

Wow, it is so frigging cheap to put on a new belt, I am shocked that they would not have done so. Especially since the water pump costs so much more than the belt, and if the pump was being replaced...jeez.

[Petros]

it is a lot more work to replace the belt, I can change the water pump in 30-40 min. the belt you have to remove the radiator, the large center bolt, front pulley, etc. to get to it. And if you replace the front seal while you are at it, that would more messing around. Worth doing, but it adds about an hours more work, if the pulley does not give you any problems.

If you were selling it why would you do that if the "belt looked okay"?

[hberdan]

If you were selling it why would you do that if the "belt looked okay"?

Yes, very good point. Caveat Emptor.

[toughtercel]

Well ! my wife had an accident at front end three month ago , yesterday I was trying to start the motor if worth keeping the motor (138,000km) no-luck then at final I remove the carbutator ,there's fuel/water fill in intake manifold,dry it out , then repeat same thing 3 times , still wet in intake manifold, two years ago another tercel won't start ,then look into intake manifold that appears fill with anti-freeze , so check it out .

[epara]

So are you saying that getting the water/anti-freeze out of the intake manifold cured the problem of the car not starting? If so, what causes water/anti-freeze to build up there.

[Petros]

Toughtercel must have had other issues from the accident, I have never seen antifreeze in the intake manifold on any car. I have gotten anti-freeze in the cylinders when the head gasket failed.

Have you check the compression? A badly failed head gasket will make it impossible to start, I had that issues recently.

It is possible you have water in the fuel? Check your carb and fuel filter, water collects and can freeze cutting off the fuel supply.

Only two reasons the car will not run, no spark (at the right time) and no fuel. and a third is no compression (less common). Start from there and verify you have spark. The spark should be a regular strong bluish spark, "snap, snap, snap!". If it is weak or irregular, could be coil or igniter issue. Than verify you have fuel supply. Of course if it does not start with starter spray, that usually indicates you have a spark or timing issue.

Does it start momentarily, run very briefly and than die with the starter fluid, or it does not run at all when you spray it into the intake?

[epara]

Found the solution to the car not starting... the shaft in the distributor snapped right in half. Having run out of ideas, I ended up having the car towed to a local mechanic today and he discovered the broken shaft in the distributor. I have a source for a couple of used distributors for $50-60. Is it worth putting a used distributor back on the car instead of looking for new/refurbished? Not sure of durability/longevity of distributors for the Tercels. Guess the spark I was seeing wasn't enough spark. Surprised I was getting any spark at all.

Thanks

[hberdan]

At least that is a simple solution. You might want to find a shop that rebuilds distributors, and either have yours rebuilt, or use it as a core exchange for a rebuilt unit.

[ARCHINSTL]

As far as the durability of the shaft goes - I don't think anyone here has ever reported that problem before...
If you are going to keep the car for a good while - as hberdan suggests - get a rebuilt one. I did, for $184 from Advance, back in 2006. Be sure to take the old one when you pick up the reman (as opposed to taking it in before the new one arrives), as usually there are several items that need to be switched, like a gasket.
Tom M.

[Petros]

I have never heard of a broken distributor shaft on a Toyota before. If they get rusted up I supposed it can happen, or miss-installed perhaps? The broken end may have been turning it unreliabley, so you got a spark, but not enough to run it. A timing light check would have revealed this problem. At least it is a simple fix.

The distributors are usually very reliable, I driven mine for over 250k miles, and I replaced it because an engine fire (unrelated to the distributor) melted the connector. I have always used wrecking yard distributors with good results. A self service wrecking yard (pull-a-part, u-pull-it, etc) a whole distributor assembly is only about $12-15. And they usually give you a 30 day warranty with it. I have always trusted the used parts, but others will pay the big bucks for the new stuff.

Good luck.

[4wdchico]

I'd go for a u-pull it JY dizzy for diagnostic use. Not a huge fan of a "factory rebuilt" anything. Having your core dizzy/atlernartor/starter rebuilt by a craftsman is the way to go as far as I am concerned. I did find a guy in Socal who will re-bush and install a new shaft o-ring in a dizzy for $50, see link below for more info. He was unsure if our all in one style dizzy would fit in his advance calibration tool so I have decided to send off mine for re-bushing at a minimum. I'll have him try it on his distributor synchrograph ,and if it fits, I'll have him check out the mech/vac curves also.

Link: http://www.ignitionengineering.com/dist ... lding.html

I'm going to start a thread soon on dizzy servicing/upgrading issues, stay tuned.

[Highlander]

The only reason that comes to mind for a failure of this sort is that the end of the dizzy shaft was not in its proper place (i.e. unsupported on the very end) resulting in a reciprocating load that caused a fatigue failure. Otherwise there shouldn't be THAT much side load on the shaft at all since its supported on the one end by the bushing in the dizzy, and on the other at the head. JMHO

[splatterdog]

Just goes to show, nobody has seen it all.

I've seen a couple roll pins shear at the gear or stripped gear teeth, but never a broken shaft. One was a little fun to diagnose. It actually broke right on #1 TDC. It "checked out" at first and even had spark from a little bit of shaft wiggle when cranking. Timing light showed no problem on that one, at least while referencing cylinder 1. Yours must have still been turning or at least moving slightly if you still had spark.

The best damage was from an advance weight that came off it's pin and locked the dist up tight.

The only thing I would worry about on a used dist would be the coil. I've had 2 fail so far. Every 20 years/200k isn't too bad though. Reman's typically only get what's broke/worn out. Everything else gets reused.