Car has 67,000 original miles. Has been running fine, no problems what-so-ever. Drove the car to work one day. When I tried to start it, to come back home, it wouldn't start. The starter engages fine, but it doesn't hit at all. No hint that it is even trying to start, the starter just sits there and spins. I can smell fuel though after it cranks a little bit. There is no spark out of the secondary side of the coil.
After getting the car home I started checking some things. Dug out the Toyota manuals and started looking for hints of what the problem might be. Here are some things I tested.
1) The ignition relay and fuses are fine. With a voltmeter negative lead grounded to the chassis, there is 12 volts on the positive terminal of the primary connection to the ignition coil. (With the negative voltmeter lead attached to the negative lead of the primary plug there is about .5 volt right across the plug when the ignition switch is "ON"). 2) Ohmmetered the coil. Getting very low resistance on the primary side (less than 1 ohm) and about 10 K from the positive coil connection to the secondary. Checks ok according to the manual. 3) Removed the connecting plug from the primary side of the coil. With voltmeter across it, getting about 1 to 2 volts there when cranking the engine. 4) Disconnected the plug that goes between the "igniter" and the distributor pickup coil. Applied a AA battery to the igniter side for just a couple of seconds and measured about 9 volts across the ignition coil primary plug (with it unplugged from the coil). That convinced me that the igniter was ok and that the problem must be with the pickup coil. Ordered a new pickup coil and got that this morning. Replaced it, set the air gap to about 0.012", put the distributor back together and had the same symptoms. Actually, I probably had a little less voltage at the primary plug at the ignition coil. So, decided to try setting the air gap a bit closer. Set it at 0.008" and that did increase the voltage a little bit seemed like, but still not enough to produce a spark in the secondary of the coil.Timing belt was changed about 7,000 miles ago, plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, all have been changed out in routine maintenance.
At the price of the igniter and the coil I hate to just start shotgunning this thing. The resistance of the coil windings seem to be within spec, according to the manual and the igniter seems to be increasing the voltage from the "signal generator" or distributor pickup coil. It just seems to me that the voltage from the pickup coil is too low, but I don't really know what it is supposed to be.
What am I missing? Besides spark!
Thanks, Mac