Ignition spark problems

[roadrunner-europe]

Hello to Everybody,
I have a Problem and I don´t know what I can do more.

Last summer I drove to a friend and about a half mile before I arrived at his home my engine turned off. I thought it comes from my autogas arrangement, so I restarted and continued my way. Two weeks later in the same road (that´s not a joke) the same story. When I arrived at my friend´s home, I told him this story and he began to laugh. I told him, that my car dislike his road, cause even when I entered it, the engine turned off. I have never thought, that this is the beginning of a nightmare.

One day in fall the engine turned off again and I crank again. This time without result. So I call a friend and he came and he tows me to my garage. We find out that there was no spark. So we controlled everything, but we´ve found no fault.
To be sure, the next day I ordered some spare parts. At the next weekend I change everything. Crank the engine – no result. The engine kept off. The starter turned but the engine don´t start.
These are the parts, which I changed:
Distributor cap
Ignition coil
Distributor arm
Ignition module
There is a module with slotted holes to adjust on the steering column connected via a bar with the starter lock – even changed

Everything without result. The engine kept off.
Not far from my garage, we´ve an us-car-dealer. He is a good friend meantime. I spoke to him and he gave me a high performance ignition distributor which produce 65000 volt. I thought that this was the solution of my problem. Returned to the garage and built it in, crank – nothing. Dismounted and brought back. This was all on a Saturday.
Sunday I returned to my garage and tried a few other things.
Placed a wire from battery+ to the ignition coil, and a conductor from battery- to the bottom of the ignition distributor to eliminate ground problem. Nothing changed.
And now comes the unbelievable but truth: one week later I returned to my garage, open the truck, crank and this holy piece of s… started. No one touched this car for the past week!!! Why does it start?
Since this day we talk about “Christine”, when we talk about my truck.
This happened several times. But I never can say when. Sometimes it runs a week, sometimes a month, I´ve even had that I started the car, drove out of the garage, turned it off, washed my motorbike and after that we wanted to drive to a meeting and I can´t start the truck again. Same problem.
Anybody there, who could help me with some new ideas? Have try a lot of ways. Have help from a truck mechanician and an electrician. None of them know anything more. Even the dealer hasn´t an idea.
I hope that I´ve explain my problem well.

[ringger14]

It sounds like you have covered alot of things already. My truck was a wiring nightmare. Mine sometimes would turn on, sometimes it wouldnt. In my case it was a garbage fuseable link in the wiring harness itself. It was random when it wanted to let current through. I ended up finding it when it finally came apart on a date. haha. Akward. I got a new harness and havent had a problem since! Id look over your harness just to rule another thing out if you havent already.

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by ringger14

It sounds like you have covered alot of things already. My truck was a wiring nightmare. Mine sometimes would turn on, sometimes it wouldnt. In my case it was a garbage fuseable link in the wiring harness itself. It was random when it wanted to let current through. I ended up finding it when it finally came apart on a date. haha. Akward. I got a new harness and havent had a problem since! Id look over your harness just to rule another thing out if you havent already.

hi ringger14,

thank you for your answer.

I don´t think so.
When I crank, i´ve current at the distributor cap. Before i´m not sure, that it really comes from the harness, I won´t change the harness. in Germany they ask up to $1200.
Unfortunately i´ve no used one to exclude it. I keep it in the back of the head.

Thank you

Greetings

Chris

[motornut]

rough road?
next time ,no start,try pouring gas down the carb
check gas line for cracks/leaks

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by motornut

rough road?
next time ,no start,try pouring gas down the carb
check gas line for cracks/leaks

hi,

no, it isn´t a gas problem. have summit caburator with level indicator. electrical gas pump and all fuel lines changed against fuel hose.


chris

[ringger14]

I have a friend that owns a race shop. Ill send him this link and see what he thinks. This engine is his favorite engine so he should be very informative. Have you changed the plug wires or no?

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by ringger14

I have a friend that owns a race shop. Ill send him this link and see what he thinks. This engine is his favorite engine so he should be very informative. Have you changed the plug wires or no?

No, the plug wires are nearly 4 years old. do you mean, it´s possible that each wire makes problem at the same time and at the same time they are well again? At the moment I believe everything.

Chris

[ringger14]

Well everything seems to go out at the same time these days. I have a msd box and coil that has a plug wire that goes from the coil to the distributor. Did you check all the plugs when looking for spark?

[roadrunner-europe]

no I didn´t, I have to say that I haven´t. Have try it at 3 plugs with new sparkplugs

[ringger14]

Go get a cheap little spark tester and run down the wires. At least youll be able to rule that out if they all spark.

[roadrunner-europe]

ok, good idea. will do it.

have to go to work now, damn night shift.

thank you for all good advice

chris

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by ringger14

Go get a cheap little spark tester and run down the wires. At least youll be able to rule that out if they all spark.

Hi,

found one.
just ordered. Hope it´ll be there before weekend.

will report.

greets chris

[ringger14]

Np. Let me know. Ill still ask my friend for more ideas.

[kody]

mine was acting same way,turns out it was esc box under dash.allmost drove me nuts.it controls spark knock,has 4-pin connector at distributor.

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by kody

mine was acting same way,turns out it was esc box under dash.allmost drove me nuts.it controls spark knock,has 4-pin connector at distributor.

hi kody

which year of built is your truck?

[kody]

1984 c10 305

[roadrunner-europe]

Hi Kody,

mine is from 1977. I have no esc box. Have HEI ditributor.

Chris

[1LowToy]

I think you may be dealing with faulty ignition module or a bad coil. Find the riesistance readings for the coil and test it. If there are off at all the coil is bad. The will work intermitantly.

[roadrunner-europe]

Hello to everybody,

did every advice I get, thanks to everybody for them, but nothing helps. received the spark plug cable tester last wednesday - tested all today - even nothing. try to simulate the fault by stake out different cables/wires, but also nothing.
today I find out, that the module I posted above, is buzzing, when I turn the key to ignition. still don´t know what this module is for.
if there is anybody else knowing something, please report.
not far away from taking a match and...

thx

chris

[wyattglock]

I know this is off the wall, but have you checked out the starter solenoid? If the wire from the ignition switch to the solenoid has a bad connection it can cause an intermittent contact. It sounds like you have pretty well run through the rest of the ignition problems, cant imagine it is any of that at this point. Also, double check the wires from the battery to the starter to make sure they don't have any corrosion or breakage in them. Good luck, hope you get it figured out.

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by wyattglock

I know this is off the wall, but have you checked out the starter solenoid? If the wire from the ignition switch to the solenoid has a bad connection it can cause an intermittent contact. It sounds like you have pretty well run through the rest of the ignition problems, cant imagine it is any of that at this point. Also, double check the wires from the battery to the starter to make sure they don't have any corrosion or breakage in them. Good luck, hope you get it figured out.

Hi,

can´t say anything today. wanted to look for it, recieved call from wife (ill). Finished work, went home. have to exclude the starter, cause the headers stands in the way. have to look next week-end. any time during the week.

[Cue-Ball]

I just went through a very similar problem on my 1980 SWB. The ignition system is pretty simple and only has a very limited number of parts. You've already replaced the normal culprits (ignition coil, ignition module). If you're certain it doesn't have spark, and you're certain that the coil is getting voltage, then there are only a couple of things left that it could be. In my case, I narrowed it down to the magnetic pickup inside the distributor. Instead of replacing just the magnetic pickup, I bought a new HEI instead. But since you're outside of the US and have already replaced most everything else, you might want to try replacing the magnetic pickup and, for the heck of it, the small wire harness that connects to the ignition module. Those are about the only two things left that it could be. If you want to be really thorough, you can temporarily wire up the coil so that you don't need the ignition key or any of the wiring harness.

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by Cue-Ball

I just went through a very similar problem on my 1980 SWB. The ignition system is pretty simple and only has a very limited number of parts. You've already replaced the normal culprits (ignition coil, ignition module). If you're certain it doesn't have spark, and you're certain that the coil is getting voltage, then there are only a couple of things left that it could be. In my case, I narrowed it down to the magnetic pickup inside the distributor. Instead of replacing just the magnetic pickup, I bought a new HEI instead. But since you're outside of the US and have already replaced most everything else, you might want to try replacing the magnetic pickup and, for the heck of it, the small wire harness that connects to the ignition module. Those are about the only two things left that it could be. If you want to be really thorough, you can temporarily wire up the coil so that you don't need the ignition key or any of the wiring harness.

Hi,

as I have already written at the beginning, I´ve exchanged the distributor with another. this one was a high performance with 65000 volt. nothing has changed so. so I replaced the old one. the engine still not runs. the next week-end i went back to my garage, turned the key and the engine started. nobody touch this car since replacing the old distributor.
a friendly mechanic says at his opinion, that the high performance distributor was not in proper.
till now i can´t find a shop, where i can buy this small wire harness that connects to the ingnition module. everything else is gettable.
next week-end will try to simulate the fault.

thx

chris

[Cue-Ball]

Originally Posted by roadrunner-europe

Hi,

as I have already written at the beginning, I´ve exchanged the distributor with another. this one was a high performance with 65000 volt.

Sorry, I didn't see anywhere you said that you replaced the distributor. I just saw that you replaced the coil, ignition module, cap, and rotor.

If you're getting 12V to the coil, the coil is properly grounded, and you've already tried two different distributors (ruling out the ignition module and magnetic pickup), then I have no idea what else it could be. That's pretty much the entire ignition system. As long as the coil has voltage and the trigger is being sent (this is done by the magnetic pickup and ignition module), then the engine should run.

[roadrunner-europe]

Originally Posted by Cue-Ball

Sorry, I didn't see anywhere you said that you replaced the distributor. I just saw that you replaced the coil, ignition module, cap, and rotor.

If you're getting 12V to the coil, the coil is properly grounded, and you've already tried two different distributors (ruling out the ignition module and magnetic pickup), then I have no idea what else it could be. That's pretty much the entire ignition system. As long as the coil has voltage and the trigger is being sent (this is done by the magnetic pickup and ignition module), then the engine should run.

Hi Cue-Ball,

doesn´t matter. don´t care about it. thanks for your help...


...but, i´ve seen you are from Kirkland, WA. maybe you know my truck.
get it in 2007, first owner in Europe. truck came from Cheney, WA. near Spokane. about 120mls from your home. Have title at home. maybe you know the last owner, so you could ask him, what he did with this truck.

thanks

chris