88 Ford ranger no spark off distributor. My truck broke down several months ago and I have not been able to get it running. I had no spark off the cool so I replaced it and I have spark off of the coil now but not at the spark plugs. I changed my plug wires yesterday but have not had the chance to check it today, I think my battery may be bad I need to throw a charger on it. Will it have spark if the timing is off?? I have had the distributor out I turned the motor over until the first valve was at tdc but how do I know that the distributor is at the same point or does that matter. Thank u.

 

Yes, it would still have spark at the spark plugs if timing was off, just no startup

Once you have the engine set to #1 TDC Compression stroke
You then put the distributor in so the ROTOR is pointed to #1 spark plug wire on the cap, drawing here: https://www.fixya.com/uploads/images/55ef2f7.gif

If coil is sparking and rotor is OK and turning, then spark plug wires should be getting that same spark from the coil

 

Ok I'm going to give that a try.
How many ways can I put the distrutor in?

 

As many gears as there on the distributor's shaft, so count them, lol, then -1, and thats how many ways it can be inserted to be 1 tooth off the correct timing
But once distributor is lowered into place it can be rotated a bit to match #1 spark plug wire to rotor, thats the fine tuning you do with a timing light after engine can be started

 

Okay so I pull the distributor, crank it until the first piston is at the top and how do I know if that isn't the top of the exhaust pump? Once I have tdc though I drop the distributor in with the rotor pointing to the number one plug. I marked the distributor before I pulled it, but I turned the gear on the bottom while I had it out, is that going to foul it up?? I wish I would have written my problem here months ago. Thank you for your patience and assistance!!

 

You can turn the gear(rotor) while distributor is out, in fact you want to, to make sure it spins OK, NO WOBBLE(worn out bushings)

When crank shaft is at #1 TDC there is a 50/50 chance its correct for distributor rotor pointing at #1 spark plug wire when you lower it into position
So see if engine starts, add fuel manually if needed

If engine does not start then distributor is 180deg off, not a big deal
Take off the cap
look at where rotor is pointed, take a picture if you want
Loosen and lift up distributor so you can turn the rotor
If rotor WAS pointed at 12:00, turn it to 6:00 and lower it back down
If Rotor was at 3:00 turn it to 9:00
ECT............
So rotor is pointing EXACTLY opposite of where IT WAS pointing, 180deg reset

Put it back together and it WILL start this time

 

Okay I tried that, I must be doing something wrong though because it's still not starting, I know that I had spark off the coil. My helper quit on me so I guess I need to find a remote start, or someone else to help. Im about fed up with my truck and I love that truck so I don't really want to scrap it.

 

You can make a remote starter with two wires

Look on the inner fender for Starter Relay, often called starter solenoid
There will be a red/blue wire on the "S" post of this relay, small post and WILL have an "S" next to it
When the "S" post has 12volts the starter motor will activate, key on or off doesn't matter so BE CAREFUL!!!
In gear or out of gear doesn't matter, so BE CAREFUL!!!

Take the wire OFF the "S" post and put Your new wire on the "S" post
If you touch the other end of that wire to Battery positive starter motor will activate

If you get another wire hooked to battery positive and touch the 2 ends together starter motor will activate
And that's what a remote starter is except is has a button or trigger that connects the 2 ends of the wires together when you press or pull it, lol


Is the rotor new?
And is it the right size for the cap?

 

Yes cap and rotor are new, Ive also replaced the module mounted at the base of distributor, and the a black module located on pass fender. I think it's ignition control module and I can't remember the name of the other one. As well as new plug wires.the Spark plugs and distributor have also been replaced within the last year.

 

Does the wire have to be a thick wire or will it be alright if I use thin wire will this switch be enough??

 

What is the switch for?
If its for remote start it will be fine, pulls less than 1 amp, closer to 1/2 amp

TFI is the name of the module on the distributor and that's what does the spark and timing, there is nothing else, no other modules involved
Give this module 12v and the coil 12volts and spark should work

 

It coughed!! so I've definetely got spark, starter sounds pretty bad though.

 

My old starter seems to have really worn the teeth on my flywheel will take pictures later today. I don't think I have a bad starter but people tell me that it sounds terrible. I can't disagree, but it's been that way as long as I can remember. Is it unusual for my starter to do that??

 

Starter is like any electric motor, has a rotor with bearings, if bearings start to go it can be noisy, but since it is not used for long periods just short, under 30 second burst, run times it can go on that way for years, making the noise

Technically the starter's "gear" should wear out not the Ring gear on the flywheel/flexplate, because starter gear is "suppose" to be "softer" grade of metal, on purpose because its way easier to replace starter gear than Ring gear, lol

You can pull out the starter and power it up with jumper cables to see if thats the source of "the noise"
If not then its the gears not meshing as well as they should and that can wear down both the starter gear and ring gear, even though it shouldn't wear the ring gear

Once ring gear is worn it will "eat" starter gears pretty quick, because they are "softer" metal, so flywheel/flexplate(or just ring gear) should be replace next time transmission is off

 

I pulled the distributor back out just enough to turn it back one position, It now sounds like the starter motor is engaging, but I dont feel like its engaging the fly wheel. I will go pull the starter now and test it. It still doesnt start but It might with a push start.

 

Traded starter motor out, it cranks but coil throws intermittent spark. I think that it's a problem with the ignition switch.

 

What is pickup coil?? Would that be bad?? I'm getting spark when I stop cranking the motor and that might be the only times that it Sparks. Both of the coil and the number one spark plug.

 

Could be a bad wire/contact in ignition switch

Use a jumper wire from Battery positive to Coil Positive, leave current coil positive wire in place as it feeds the rest of the spark system

In the old days this was called "hot wiring" a car, then try to start, if it starts then the ignition by-pass wire is bad


In the bad ol' days ignition coils would burn out faster if you sent them 14volts while engine was running(alternator volts)
So a resistor wire or Ballast Resistor was add to the Coil's positive wire to lower the voltage to 9 to 10volts from 14volts, so -5volts

BUT..........when you start an engine the starter motor draws 2 to 3 volts, so 12volt battery drops down to 9 or 10volts while cranking, and if resistor is there then coil is 5 or 6 volts and very little, if any, spark

So a By-pass was used, if you have ever seen the 4 post starter relay(solenoid) the small "I" post was that by-pass, it had a diode and wire that ran to Coil positive, so coil got battery volts when starter motor did(relay was activated)

In the 1970's ignition switches had a second wire that by-passed resistor
And by mid-1980's when coils got better the resistor was removed BUT the by-pass was still there, so power for spark system is cut when key is in START position but is reconnected by the by-pass wire that has power in START

Diagram of that setup below
You see the red/green(R/LG) wire powering the spark system in RUN position
And then a Brown/pink(BR/PK) wire taking over when key is in START position

Thats from the bad ol' days, lol

So do the Jumper wire to see if this is the problem

 

Should I have spark off the coil continuously with the jumper wire connected? Or when the key is on, or only while cranking?? Because I tried it and it didn't start, but I didn't check the spark what should I expect??

Thank you

 

This is what my flywheel looks like

 

Yes, bad ring gear
You will need a new starter gear after replacing ring gear

Yes, if the Spark module(TFI) is working then coil should be sparking very fast when engine is turning
The 12v jumper is just taking ignition switch issue off the table
So you would be down to Distributor's hall effect sensor or TFI module/wiring

 

What's the ring gear??

 

Okay, so I don't have a consistent spark even with the ignition switch bypass. will moving the distributor affect the consistency of spark off the coil? I feel like I should have almost constant spark off the coil.

 

Ring gear is on a Flywheel(manual trans) or Flexplate(automatic)
Its the gear the starter motor turns to crank the engine over

An ignition coil sparks when it's GROUND is cut off, "-" terminal
In the bad ol' days the distributor had a shaft with bumps(lobes) on it, 6 lobes for a 6 cylinder
And it had POINTS mounted inside the distributor next to the spinning lobes
The points were hooked to vehicle ground and to Coil "-"
Each time a lobe PUSHED OPEN the points the coil would spark, then between lobes, points are closed and coil is grounded so POWERS UP again for the next spark

So removing power(ground) from the coil causes it to spark, one time
You can do that manually to test any coil

Electronic ignitions took the points out of the picture since they always needed adjusting, points were a PITA
Yours(TFI electronic ignition) uses vane/window setup and a hall effect sensor instead of the points
6 cylinder will have 6 vanes and 6 windows that spin on the distributor shift, the Hall effect sensor will send a signal to the TFI module each time a vane passes by it, so its like the points
TFI module CUTS the ground to the coil at each signal, causing coil to spark, assuming it had 12volt on "+" terminal, then TFI module grounds the coil again
(this is what a tachometer signal is, tach was hooked to coil "-" terminal and "counted" the times coil's ground was cut, then divide that by number of cylinders....and you have the RPM)

Timing the distributor to the engine doesn't have anything to do with the spark pluses, if distributor is turning then you should have steady/consistent spark from the coil

Timing engine spark has to do with #1 getting spark at the right time, so firing order can be used

 

Well as far as I can tell I haven't lost power to the coil, my friend last night suggested that I'm not getting consistent ground. He said that I can add wires from the engine block to the frame or the negative terminal on the battery. This makes sense because I have noticed that even with the battery charger hooked up and set to jump start it still turns over slow like it's not getting enough power. I want to see what I can do to add additional ground, what's the best way to go about this?? Thanks