84 4x4 quit running.cranks no start. No spark. I have replaced the coil, cap and rotor, cleaned some corrosion off of the interior fuse block, cleaned up some wiring. Still no start.

on the electrical connection between the alternator and the IC Regulator I notice that there seems to be an electrical pin missing on the connector.

here are pics

Male and female connectors. Seems to be a pin missing on the corresponding connections closest to one another and furthers to the right hand side of the picture.

Can see it best here. Is there supposed to be a pin in the bottom left hand slot here? Or is it just empty on purpose. Thanks in advance for the time and help.

 

Looks like there's no pin there on purpose. The way it was designed.

Did you try the plug wires, and the plugs themselves? Both viable possibilities. Did you check for any codes of the CEL? Might help give you a starting point, anywho.
Did you check the air gap of the pickup coil in the distributor cap? And the coil resistance, and the coil's wiring to where it goes? I can't recall right off where it goes, or I'd be more specific.
Did you check the ground wire between the head and the body? It should go from one of the bolts that hold the lifting hook to the head, to the body metal of the firewall behind the head. Since it's the ground for the plugs, if it's missing, or badly corroded/dirty, it can cause the missing spark problem. Worth a look, any way.


Ok, I'm out of ideas. I don't get all that many any more...
Pat☺

 

Since the no start, I’ve replaced cap and rotor, plugs, plug wires (those were all overdue). I’ll check the grounds as well. Thanks for giving me some direction to look!!

 

I forgot to mention, the head's ground, IF it's in good shape, needs the battery ground to the body to be in good shape to make the circuit.

They battery negative should have 2 cables on it, at least. One going down to the engine block, usually connected to the AC compressor's mount, or where the mount would be if you don't have AC. The other normally goes to the body metal. There's a real good spot for it, in front of the battery, just behind the head light.
A note on battery terminals: Use what's called a Marine Terminal. It's like a regular battery terminal, but instead of that cheapo thin bar across it for the wires, it has a screw post sticking up. Using one of those allows you to put a ring terminal on the cables attached to it. Preferably with heat shrink on them. Meltwall, or FIT-300, heat shrink. Helps keep battery acid out of the cables. Also makes pulling out the battery, or just disconnecting it to work on something, MUCH easier.
I Marine terminaled (is that a word??) both my trucks, and put good, heavy ring terminals on the cables. I also replaced all the directly connected to the battery cables with 2-0 size cables. It seems to make an improvement. I have had to clean a little differential metal corrosion off the terminals of the negative battery terminals and ring terminals a few times over the years, but not like I did when I had regular terminals on there.
Check the wires, however you connect them, for acid corrosion where they attach, AND down inside the insulation. Acid can get in there, and corrode the wires to uselessness with no external damage to the insulation.
Also, I don't know if they're as good as they used to be, but the Optima Gel-Cell type batteries don't leak acid the way a regular battery will. Prevents corrosion caused by acid intrusion completely. I love them.

Have fun!
Pat☺

 

The 5 pin oval plug is correct for the '84, just make sure all the terminals are clean.

Here's the specs on the rest:
Distributor Pickup Coil - Resistance test: 130 - 180 Ohms cold. Air Gap: 0.008" to 0.016", or 0.2mm to 0.4mm. If the hold-down screw for the coil got loose, the coil gap could have increased, causing a lack of signal to the ignitor (ignition control module).
Ignition Coil Resistance Test -
22R: Primary - 0.4 to 0.5 Ohm, Secondary - 8500 to 11,500 Ohms
22RE: Primary - 0.8 to 1.1 Ohm, Secondary - 10,700 to 14,500 Ohms
All values tested cold. Again, as ignition coils age, they can develop higher resistance, which will only rise as they heat up.

Other items. The wire between the pickup coil and the ignitor; check for wear, cuts or breakage. Check & clean ignition coil connections. The Ignitor itself could be the cause but this is rare with factory units. If they do go out, it's usually because of a bad ignition coil with high resistance that blows them up.

Pat's advice about the battery & body grounds is good stuff. Those can develop high resistance over time as well. If they are original they are now 37 years old, so they are worth resistance checking with a meter end to end. Anything more than 0.3 Ohm through the cable and it should be replaced.

 

Pat and 13 Swords.

Finally have a bit of time today to continue the diagnostics on Daisy.

I suspect that within your responses I will discover the problem. The help is very much appreciated.

Matt

 

Update:

I’ve only owned pickup a few weeks. Although she was neglected, I bought and drove it home 1300 miles a month ago.

got home and daughter and I detailed her on, including cleaning engine compartment with degreaser, rags and brushes.

she fired up and we went out for a test drive. Daughter is learning to drive standard so poor truck was getting a little rough treatment with a lot of stalls. She stalled it leaving a stop sign. It wouldn’t start.

the electrical is messy. Most wires have been cut and spliced with electrical tape. I suspect each repAir was done sans solder.

since I’m in the process of maki g her healthy again, I replaced plugs, plug wires, cap and rotor.

I have 12 v coming in to the two pronged positive terminal at the base of the coil. YouTube video said test light should blink when connected to negative terminal at base of coil. Test light does not blink.

previous owner had wired a light bar in by running wire into fuse clock without a connector. There was some corrosion and the ignition or engine fuse was blown. I removed the fuse block, cleaned it up, and replaced fuses. also removed wire to light bar.

I have replaced the coil, the ICM, and the pickup coil. The wires and harnesses on each of those components was were badly leaked on and old and brittle. Replaced with eBay parts. Didn’t want to spring the $300 for the autozone version.

so I’m in the process of going through all of the wiring. There are a number of cut, hack, slice wires exposed from the formerly installed audio.

am going to go through, wire by wire. Here are a few examples:





Here is one question: that first pic is the connection at the alternator. The boot is done for and it’s been leaked all over. I can get a replacement harness on eBay for $60. Is it worth it to just replace that if I want a dependable pickup moving forward?

 

Also same question as to things like battery terminal cables before I actually locate the problem?

 

Thanks man! Appreciate the vote of confidence.

Don't forget, it's not just the resistance of the cable it's self. It's also the connections to whatever the cable goes to. Is the ring terminal clean, bare, copper metal? How about the metal under the ring terminal? Clean, bare, metal? No corrosion, paint, grease/oil, and so forth.

Corrosion tends to build up under the connection point. It's called differential metal corrosion. When you have two different metals in contact with one another, it actually acts like a battery. Whether there's actual current flowing across the connection, like say with the truck running, or the cable is disconnected from the battery at the other end from the one you're checking, the little electrons keep flowing from one metal to the other. THAT is what causes one of them to degrade. Oxidize, to be honest. Thus, one metal slowly converts from, let us say, aluminum, to aluminum oxide, which is a lousy conductor. After 30+ years, you probably have a pretty good buildup of corrosion, whether you can see it or not, under the ends of the grounds I mentioned before.
You can really see that effect on battery terminals. Over time, you get the white, powdery stuff build up all over, especially between the inside of the terminal and the actual post of the battery. That's lead oxide. Again, a lousy conductor of electricity. The acid in the battery, that comes out in tiny little bits of mist when the battery is charging, settles on the terminals, and everywhere else around, and accelerates the oxidation. That's why you have to check and clean the terminals regularly. It gets down in the wire, too. The plastic of the insulation doesn't get affected, but the copper INSIDE the insulation will change to, yep, copper oxide, and, once again, lousy conductor. Weak, too, which allows the wire strands inside the cable to break over time.
All this is why I make a big deal about the gel-cell batteries. MUCH less acid mist from them, as they are sealed up better. Also, the Marine terminals. They allow you to get rid of the thin metal bar holding bare wires to the terminal, which I never liked as a way to hold wires to the terminal, and put ring terminals on them, and seal the cable up with the meltwall heat shrink. That way NOTHING can get down under the insulation, and ruin the cable. You may still have to clean the battery posts and terminals, but it's a lot less effort than those, plus the wires.

BTW, that's why everyone harps on using the red, Toyota made, coolant for these trucks. They have an iron block, and aluminum heads. The green coolant, that is used on many cars, has chemicals in it that allows the differential metals to corrode much more easily. The red, Toyota coolant, doesn't have those chemicals in it, reducing the rate of corrosion between the head and the block.
Just a little side note.

Sorry, I ramble a lot. Just check the grounds
Pat☺

 

Thanks again, Pat.

snow here keeps me from working on her today, but I will start with checking/cleaning/replacing all the ground wires and terminals, battery cables, etc. Will also replace with gelcel when time comes and start running toyota coolant. Your help and advice are much appreciated.

Matt

 

So I cleaned and repaired all the grounds, found a blown fuse, and then tracked down a defective igniter AND signal generator. Also reported several bad wires, and removed a jump wire into fuse block and cleaned fuse block.

I replaced igniter, signal generator, and the coil. New plugs, wires, cap and rotor.

service manual specs air gap for signal generator at between .2 and .4 mm. Truck would not run at all above .25. At .2, she starts, runs like timing is off, the closer I move the air gap, it runs slightly better. I have it at .04mm and same issue.

i can’t keep it running without slightly pressing gas so I can’t check timing until I get an assistant, but I wouldn’t think the timing is so far off with the limited work I’ve done.

can’t figure out why it runs a bit better the further out of spec I move air gap.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

It does sound like your timing is off. Opening the air gap further on the pickup coil effectively changes the timing of the signal. When one of the "vanes" on the reluctor ring passes in front of the magnet in the coil, it generates an induced voltage. The closer the coil's magnet is to the "vanes" on the reluctor ring, the sooner a signal is generated, in effect advancing the timing. The further away the signal is "later". A bigger air gap in effect "retards" the timing. If everything else is good it should still run ok at idle even at the .4mm adjustment. That's what is telling me you have another timing issue.

Did you have to remove the distributor to replace the pickup coil? If so, are you sure you re-installed the distributor correctly? It could have been put back "one tooth off" to a more "retarded" timing position, and your closing the air gap to minimum is helping to make up for it, but not enough to make it run correctly.
To make sure the distributor is in properly you can manually turn the engine over so that the "0" timing mark is lined up on your crank pulley, then take the distributor cap off & confirm that the rotor is pointing at the #1 position (just a bit to the left of straight up). That is the compression stroke for #1 cylinder. If the timing mark is on "0" and the rotor is pointing straight down, you're on the exhaust stroke for #1 cylinder. Also, when the distributor is correctly installed, the hole for the hold-down bolt should be right in the middle of the slot.
Here is a very good video explaining this more completely:
Have you taken off your valve cover and had a close look at the timing chain? 22R's are notorious for breaking the driver's side chain guide, causing looseness in the chain, which could affect engine timing. Also if the chain has anywhere near 100K miles on it, it may be time for a new one. Since you previously reported that it "just stopped running" it could be reasonable to assume that the chain is slack and that caused it to jump a tooth off. Having to stay on the gas to keep it running? Two things. Engine speed faster than idle will help take up any slack in a loose timing chain, and engine speeds faster than idle cause your mechanical timing advance in the distributor to advance the timing, causing the spark timing to be more near what it should be. You could have had a combination of problems with both mechanical timing (chain or mis-installed distributor) & the ignition parts. But I seriously advise that if you do not know when the timing chain was last replaced, you pull the valve cover and have a good look at it.. Here another decent video about that:

 

13Swords that is EXTREMELY helpful. 🙏🏼 I will pull the valve cover this weekend.

when she quit working I was teaching my daughter to drive standard so there was a lot of stalling out and rough treatment which seems like could have sent a weak time chain set up over the edge.

This poor girl was more neglected than I realized when I bought her but I am enjoying getting her sorted out and making her right again.

Again thank you very much for your time and expertise in helping me get her sorted out.

 

...and I did not have to pull the distributor, although from the time I got it, the motor and valves in particular didn’t seem quite right.

 

No problem, I just hope the info helps you to track down whatever problems may be lurking in there. I'm sure you may have already thought about this, but while you have that valve cover off, check all of your valve lash settings. I know the repair manuals say to check them hot, but I found a way that works to check & set them cold. The specs on them are 0.08" (0.2mm) Intake & 0.12" (0.3mm) Exhaust. I just set them cold at 0.10" & 0.14" respectively. Once everything heats up to operating temp the gaps are perfect, and I've never really noticed any excess valve rattling on cold start-ups either.

I hope you don't have to go through the trouble of replacing the timing set, but if you do, make sure you get a quality set with the steel-backed chain guide that goes on the driver's side of the engine. The originals were plastic and that's the one that can break and cause the "slop" in the chain.

 

Igniter was bad. Got parts in and replaced it. I broke the cover that slides over the pickup coil. Trying to find a replacement.

service manual doesn’t mention it, nor does a pretty decent search of the inter webs. Anyone know what this thing is called?

 

Is that inside the distributor?

 

Yes. It’s a cover over the pickup coil

 

I think I found it:
https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/...ributor,,19121

I put in 1985 but it's probably the same.

 

I ordered it. Thanks a ton