I'm having a hot start problem on my 86 22r carb, and was wondering if anyone can tell me how to test the igniter. I have the 85 fsm, but the pictures are different than the igniter coil assembly I have. Basically it looks like you test it with the key in the on position and the coil plugged into the igniter. That's my problem, because the coil connector is plastic and covering the leads, I don't see any way to get a multimeter probe on there short of stripping the wires. Any ideas? Am I just not understanding something?

What's happening is it starts fine cold, but after it warms up it will not restart after you turn it off, unless you let it sit for awhile and cool down. Starter is always cranking like a champ, but no spark when it's hot. Also, twice it just died at an intersection, and would restart but only for a couple seconds then died again. Let it sit for a half hour to an hour and it will start right up and drive fine. I had my dad send me a used coil and igniter, and although at first it seemed to solve the problem, it's still doing the exact same thing as before. I'm having a hard time believing that both the igniters are bad, but I want to test to make sure.

A known issue I have is the vacuum advancer is dead, new one will arrive on Wednesday. Because the advancer is not working I have the timing set to zero instead of 12, for better driving and worse idling.

I cleaned my engine ground wire that attaches to the firewall, is there another engine ground?

Also, if there was a problem with the ignition switch, is it possible the starter would turn but no spark past the coil? Reason I ask is when it's hot and acting up, when I turn the key to the on position, I don't get that annoying Toyota diagnostic beeping sound (although all the diagnostic lights do light up and accessories work). But I do get the beeping sound when it's starting fine.

Thanks for any help!

Ryan

 

Ok I took both coils/igniters to the parts store and tested the coil. Apparently I can't trust my analog meter because their digital meter showed my coils were way off of spec (supposed to be 0.4-0.5, mine were reading 3.1 and 2.8). The new one measured 0.7 so I went ahead and bought it.

Apparently I can't trust the mech. I took the vehicle to either because he said I had a bad igniter. I asked him if it was a bad coil and he said no, it was the igniter and tried to sell me a used one for $150. Maybe he meant to say both were bad and he was going to replace both but he should have told me that.

Now my question is, is there any way I can ruin my new coil if I attach it to what could be a bad igniter? I'm short on cash and don't want to waste the $70 I just spent...

Thanks again...

 

Sorry to keep adding to this but I just now noticed I have significant corrosion on the center terminal of my distributor cap and rotor. This is a very new cap and rotor (maybe 3,000 miles) and I didn't notice the corrosion when working on it earlier and apparently the mech. didn't see it last week either, so I'm thinking it is new. The cap and rotor were bought from Toyota, and there is no corrosion on the outer terminals, just the center one. Would a bad coil cause this?

 

A bad coil wouldn`t cause corrosion, it must have some how got wet, also, another thing to check for your hard start problem is the thermal temperature sensor, depending on how it goes bad it can cause problems when the motor is either hot or cold, and in your case its when the engine is hot.

 

I was thinking if the coil was throwing the wrong voltage it would arc and cause corrosion, and it seems strange it would only get wet on the center terminal and nowhere else?

so where is this thermal temperature sensor?

thanks for the reply...

 

Ok I found a couple things that I was just not getting. First the pics in the FSM were different than my coil/igniter because I was looking at the 22re not the 22r. Second I found there is indeed corrosion on the outer dist. cap terminals just not nearly as much. I'm still unclear about just how to test the igniter but at least I'm looking at the right pages now.

 

Igniters usually either work or they don't; there isn't any in between. I'd suspect your problem is elsewhere...start with the thermal temp sensor as stated above.