Long story short,

driving home yesterday the X started misfiring bad. The truck drove on its own power home and bucked in the driveway but still ran. Opened it up and found a shredded bearing in the distributor. Tracked the bearing down today and installed it and now it wont start. Seems like I have no spark.

when I reinstalled it I:

Set the #1 piston to 0 degrees TDC. Set the rotor to #1 CYL (5 o clock position) and nothing. Tried a notch forward, a notch back and nothing. I would think that even if it was off a few notches it would still run or at the least fire.

Please tell me missed something stupid. Kinda hard to think clear working in the damn dark on 32 degree night while its drizzling. (yep..working outside FML).

180 off

Have you checked the ignition coil, or if you mistakenly removed some of the spark plug wires off the diz cap, and might have placed them back wrong! I did that once! The Book says to find TDC top dead center, you have to align the mark on the crank shaft pulley to the farthest to the left as you face the front of the car! Then you have to make sure you find TDC for a compression rotation, not an exhaust rotation!

What I did, I had someone crank the starter in small bursts, while I took off the spark plug on the number one cylinder and inserted a long ratchet extension adapter and listened for a puff out the spark plug hole. Then I turned the crank shaft pulley with the help of someone else with our hands, its easy! And I aligned the last to the left mark to the marker. Then simply I took the dizzy off and moved it a little before it touches the number one spark plug wire, clock wise! Then I checked the wires where numbered right and inserted properly and turned the dizzy all the way to the right (Clock wise). Then someone would crank the engine while I would slightly turned the dizzy counter clock wise till it started the engine!

I guess I got lucky but it helps to have someone to help you crank the engine!

Good luck to you, hope this works!

If not you probably have to check the pick up coil!

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That's what I assumed at first but even when I flipped it around it still gave me no spark. I pulled the #1 wire and plug and cranked it over to see if I got spark at the plug and nothing. Even if its off it should still fire at the spark plug no?

Thanks by the way.

@ Maverick

Do you have any ideas for testing the coil? I know its not the spark plug wires because the only wire I pulled was #1 and I didn't remove any off the dist. cap. TDC had to be right, I was definitely on the 0 mark and with the #1 plug removed you can see the piston right nice and close to the head.

Thanks for the help.

I'm not trying to be a smart ass, just making sure the simple and obvious fixes are covered.. you did plug the external plug to the distributor back in (and all the way), right?

No worries man I'm not taking it as you being a smart ass lol. I unplugged and plugged both connections in almost every time I pulled the distributor to check/change the position of the rotor. I'm wondering if the bearing shredding had anything to do with the electronic side of things not working

Did you plug everything back in? If you are getting zero spark ever then that could be the problem.

Yea the only 3 connections I ever touched were the negative battery and the two connections on the distributor. I also removed the distributor and opened it back up to make sure the connections inside were correct. I might just bite the bullet and buy a distributor.

So do you have any spark whatsoever?

Nothing, I took 3 wires out (the easy ones lol) and connected some old NGK's. Not a single one ignited.

And your rotor is turning?

Yes definitely. I'm betting a bag of donuts on a dead distributor. I even checked every fuse, fusible link the whole thing. I hooked up a coil wire off an SR20 distributor I had and put it directly to the coil with a spark plug on it. Nothing.

And you performed the repair properly?

Sounds to me like its the pick up coil!

Or the ignition control module!

Look into it!

before you go an drop a couple hundred on a new distributor, i say follow that $7 rebuild that guy posted in the DIY and just rebuild it from direction instead of hunting for the problem. you may have overlooked something.

To be honest his DIY pertained to the bearing. The dissasembly and reassembly of the distributor is pretty basic. New distributor on the way.

ok, so I 2-day shipped a distributor (only $169 new with cap+rotor) installed it and first click she fired up and life is good! I'm trucking again!!! Thanks guys!

:) Good stuff! I would just double check your existing distributor before tossing it. :)

Haha yea man I kept it,