86 new yorker (2.2 turbo): no spark; voltage regulator?

My engine up and died going uphill in stop and go traffic today. (not fun) I'm wondering what the problem may be and what to look for. Symptoms: Car electronics work alright; starter cranks and such but there is no fire. Take out spark plug; it's clean, gapped well, etc. Test it for spark against the head: nothing. Check against other metal parts: nothing. Take off the distributor cap: doesn't look too bad. Check the wire coming from the coil to distributor cap: no spark there when cranking. At this point we figured it was possibly a bad coil. We bought a new coil and voltage regulator (because it's cheap, and hey, we might have to replace that since the problem seems to be in that area) The new coil didn't change things; still no spark anywhere. So then we went about searching for the voltage regulator. And searched we did. Quite a while. The Haynes manual makes no mention of its location; the replacement (external) said it was bolted to the firewall. It's not on the firewall. I thought only 1987s and later had voltage regulators that are internal (according to the Haynes book). How could this 1986 car have one interally?

But, more to the point: even if it isn't the regulator's fault, what else could it be? Timing belt? If so, is there a procedure for it that does not involve tearing out the majority of the engine? (that does not sound like fun, especially parked in a random person's parking lot as it is)

Anything simpler that I am overlooking? I will investigate any ideas you have and hopefully, let you know tomorrow.

Thank you for your time and possible help, MED

Have you tried check for a engine code yet?

HOW ABOUT THE JUNK YARD WHERE IT BELONGS!

I can't be of any help on this problem, but I can tell you that it ain't the voltage regulator. The only thing the regulator will affect is charging of the battery, and you say the starter is turning the engine over. Voltage regulator is not related to this problem.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

At this point, did you check to see if the rotor turns when cranking the engine?

Not surprising, these coils rarely fail.

Nope.

Because your system uses a power module and a logic module, the voltage regulator is contained internal to the power module. The voltage regulator deals specifically with the charging system and since you indicate no problems such as a weak or dead battery, you went/spent on a wild goose chase.

It could be a lot of things; bad distributor pick up bad ASD relay bad power module bad logic module broken wires somewhere

Sure, it could be the timing belt.

Procedure for what? Diagnosing the problem, you betcha. Step by step logical path to determining the problem. I doubt you'll do well with the Haynes manual though.

Yes, did you check to see if the rotor spins while cranking the engine when you had the distributor cap off?

Since you seem content with throwing parts at the problem, I'd throw them in the order listed above, but if it's something as simple as a corroded J2 circuit splice between the power module and the logic module, you're going to waste a lot of money with disappointing results.

(1) Throw away the Haynes and get a FSM. They should still be available from Chrysler; if not, surely you can find one on ebay.

(2) Are there any fault codes?

No, it doesn't rotate. I checked. (would that be a timing belt issue?) It's home now; much easier to get at that way. Codes returned are 11, 12, 55.

11 gives a slew of possibilities, 12 is because the battery died, and the obvious 55.

And as for the "throwing parts at it", i was indeed because of the hope that it would be something simpler to spare the hassle of getting it the 15 miles home.

Now, however, it is time to dig in.

What you need to do now is get a factory service manual, which will contain an exploded diagram of how the engine is put together, then look at what the distributor is connected to. If the rotor isn't spinning than whatever it's connected to isn't spinning, thus whatever makes that spin is broken. Most likely that thing isn't the crankshaft - which you know because the crank is connected to the starter when you turn over the car, right?

I'm being deliberately vague here - because for you to ask such a question screams that you haven't done your homework yet, and are just looking for an easy answer - and I want you to do your homework. Remember - if you don't know how something works, you don't have much of a chance of being able to fix it. (and more importantly, you have no way of knowing if the guy you hire to fix it is trying to scam you)

Ted