Help honda guy fix his 'new' Tercel Pleeease

[therealciviczc]

Hello all. I'm so glad this resource is here. I was looking through some of the other posts and everyone here seems really cool and really helpful.

Ok, so here is my deal.

I bought a 1990 Tercel from an auction for a pretty good price. I buy these cars when I see them cheap, then I fix them up and sell them to people who need cheap cars as a hobby. I sort of took a hit this time because the car does no run.

The car is a 1990 Tercel Liftback EZ (carb motor).

The fuel in the car smells really bad, but not bad enough to keep it from starting. I pulled the plugs and they were all soaked in gas. I put a new plug in the wire and grounded it while turning over, and there is no spark. The wires are good, the cap appears sufficent and the rotor seems to be ok. None of the plugs fire. I checked the coil per the cheap haynes manual I bought and it is around 165 ohms across the two connections which should be fine.

Is there any common problems with these cars that I should be looking at? My haynes doesnt help much. It doesn't tell me what wires should be getting voltage at the distributor. It doesn't tell me how to test the ignitor.

I'm lost. Since none of the plugs ever seem to fire at all (never even so much as an intermitant spudder even when I put new plugs in and tried it), I'm thinking it has to be something between the ECU and the Coil?

As a side question to my long post (Sorry), how difficult is it to switch this car over to EFI? I'm not enjoying this carb stuff since I know nothing about it. I've been toying with EFI hondas (swaps, turbocharging, etc) for years, but give me a carb and I'm

Thanks again, and great board!!

[Hook]

lol...carbs are so much more fun to tinker with than EFI man.
Is the starter cranking at all? Did u check the timing belt? r the new plugs soaked also?

*shrug* I'd say that if the fuel's giving off that smell u should drain it from the system, there should be a drain plug under the gas tank or u could maybe syphone or pump it out. There's also a drain plug to unscrew on the carb.

[Tercel GTS]

First thing to look at is if the rotor is spinning with dis cap off, if so then look inside dist for a little condensor, these burning out are a common toyota problem, after that I'd say borrow an igniter from a running tercel of same era and try it.

[therealciviczc]

Ok... So I tried a new distributor because I found on for $20 and that was cheaper than a new voltmeter to test with (mine died). I put the new distibutor on, and still no spark.

The rotor turns and the timing belt is turning the cam. The fuel still stinks, but since I know I'm not getting any spark at all, I'm going to hold off on removing the fuel. Is there any way to test the ignitor on these cars?

Thanks for the help!

[Tercel GTS]

Only way I know is to borrow one off a running car...

[therealciviczc]

This is sort of back from the dead, but does anyone have any other ideas? Still no spark. I've replaced the distributor, plugs, and the ignitor. I don't believe it is the cap or wires because it never sparks... bad wires would get an occasional spark on at least one cylinder.

Is there a relay or a major ground or something that I can check?

[mykngdom4avvti]

These cars are known for ignitors dieing. You probably have a dead ignitor.
As for testing??? Im not really sure.

[Tercel GTS]

is the 30amp engine fuse blown?