fromal intro with a problem

[TonkaTom]

I joined a little while ago and had done some posts already but I guess an intro would be nice.
My name is Tom I am 18, I live with my parents in southern california, I am in my first year of college, and have a weekend job at a paintball park. My first car was a 1994 4runner, which I had for about six months. It wasn't really in good shape and I wasn't willing to put up with the mpg so it was sold and I now drive a 1989 corolla sr5. It isn't the fastest thing ever, but it is a lot of fun to drive and I really love it. I got it late summer with 113,xxx miles on it and have since put 3000 on it. It is an awesome car

Things I have done:
1. changed the clutch
2. changed oil twice now, bled the brakes, and changed tranny fluid.
3. new tires
4. changed spark plugs, new distruibutor cap and rotor, and new plug wires
5. was going to change engine mounts but it didnt need it.
6. timing
7. changed the struts currently gr2s

Things that need changing:
1. starter/starter gear(occasionally the car won't start and the motor or gear will just spin. After I wait maybe 10 seconds it starts right up.)

The problem:
Today, on my way home from school, my car stopped running. I coasted the last 20 feet onto my street and stopped. There no sputtering or any noises out of the ordinary (i didn't have music on). I tried to start it up afterward with no luck. After my older brother arrived we looked to see what was up. The previous owner had an aftermarket alarm put in, and we had no idea what kind of condition or shape it was in, so we just snipped the wires and connected everything so it was back to normal. After that we attached a timing light to the car and I cranked it. It wasn't sparking. So we think that it is the coil. Does anyone have any other input?
Btw I had gas it was flowing just fine so we ruled out bad fuel pump.
Thank you, and thanks for having a great forum.

[kcwa]

Check the resistance of the plug wires to be sure they are with max 25 kohm. Wires are probably okay if just replaced them.

Check the coil primary resistance between the positive and negative...cold is between 1.25 and 1.56 ohm. Secondary check between the positive and high tension terminal cold is 10.4 and 14.0 kohm.

[eage8]

First I would check to make sure your timing belt didn't go. Open up the oil cap and look and see if the cams spin when you're cranking it. (don't worry, the 4A-F is non-interference so you engine won't be hurt at all)

Also, check all your fuses. A fuse that gives power to the ignition system could have easily blown

[TonkaTom]

All right ill look at those tomorrow thank you.
Is there any way I can test the coil?

[90 GP]

Here is a link on checking the coil. You will need a digital volt/ohm meter to check the values. On other posts here with similar symptoms the ground cable from battery to engine ground has been mentioned a problem point. Check to make sure both connections are corrosion free.

http://www.autozone.com/addVehicleId...00c152800b8b92

[TonkaTom]

Small update:
The coil is fine. We tested the coil and then plugged the rotor in and tried to start the car with no distributor cap. The rotor didn't spin so we checked the timing belt and it had snapped. And my brother just told me something about my valves being bent.
Can someone shed some light on this?

[90 GP]

You have a non interference engine (there is clearance between piston and valves). You don't need to worry about bent valves. Replace the timing belt and you should be good to go.

[90 GP]

Here is a link for timing belt replacement.

http://www.autozone.com/addVehicleId...00c1528006f043

[jmaz87]

Here is a thread with info on changing an oil pump which is pretty much an extra 10min after timing belt/water pump

Oil pump?

for the trouble though you might wanna replace everything depending on who is doing it.

i would at least replace front cam seals and waterpump if not the oilpump that way you don't have to mess with it for another 70,000 miles.

[TonkaTom]

Well, I replaced the timing belt along with all of the other belts. While replacing them there were no problems, we undid all engine mounts except for the one on the driver side and put a jack on the oilpan, so we could raise and lower the engine to where we needed it.
First time we started it there was a terrible squeek from the alternator belt. It was just a litle too loose. Fixed that.

Now the problem, when the idle goes down to normal after the car gets any gas it backfires and there is a rather annoying clicking noise. My brother first thought that it was a vacuum leak. But we are still looking into it and nothing has been ruled out. All of the cylinders are firing and I am reading through my haynes manual tonight. Ill check into everything tomorrow.
Any ideas at what it can be?
thanks

[jmaz87]

its possible your cold-start injector is "stuck" open and flooding but you would probably notice other issues like a really rough idle trying to stall...

i can't really think of anything else causing backfiring other than maybe the timing belt being off maybe or just running too rich (coolent temp switch for cold start)

[TonkaTom]

Well the idle was very rough and if I let it just sit it will stall. the idle jumps around 400-600. Sorry i forgot to mention rough idle. However I have an sr5 so it is the carburated 4af. So I don't have the injector. Tomorrow I am going to make sure that the cap and rotor are on right we pulled them off and put them on several times in a hurry, hopefully it wasn't a stupid mistake on my part. haha

[jmaz87]

if you are carb'd then you probably want to get that checked out by somebody familiar with them

[jmaz87]

it sounds like a classic "pig rich" scenario your plugs are probably totally fouled already

replace them with some NGK BKR 6e maybe 5 if they stock them should be like 2$ a peice

After checking the carb

[79Corona]

I would have replaced the water pump while I was in there, but it's too later now. Also check all the vacuum hoses for cracks and replace for the rough idle problem.