I put in new wire brushes into my alternator, 90 4runner, v6. Job seemed to go fine, at one point when putting things together I did forget to disconnect the battery, and the constant 12v wire contacted and made a spark.

Once everything was together, I tried to start it, and it cranks but will not turn over. I have ensured everything is hooked up, checked my 80a, 40a, 30a, EFI, and engine fuse. I pulled a plug wire and am getting a small yellow spark, not the blue one I was looking for.

I'm pretty desperate, my girlfriend's car got wrecked and now I'm responsible for both of our transportation. I don't have enough money to get it towed and worked on. Trying to find ideas on what I could have done while replacing the brushes on the alternator. Again it has plenty of power, cranks when I turn the key, but I'm getting no spark.

Any help would be amazing, and let me know if you have questions I didn't cover here. Remember the vehicle was running and starting fine, I just got a battery and brake light and the suggested fix was to replace the wire brush.

Thanks in advance.

 

when u checked the fuese did u use a meter to see that there good? could have a crack in one but still letting a little power get threw but not enough to power it right

 

yes I used a meter and they all checked out and made the beeping sound (used the multitool I think its called at o'reilly's.) I bought a circuit tester which I haven't opened yet, I was just so sure it'd be the 80a fuse that now I'm not sure where to go. Or if there's another fuse I didn't test that I should?

(coincidence my names Justin as well and I live in Seattle.)

 

another note, I heard a clicking noise near the fuse box when she was cranking it over, would it be possible that its not a fuse but the fusible link part that blew and is causing it to not spark?

 

When you turn the key to the ACC position, does you radio come on? If so, when you start the truck (or attempt to) does every thing die. If so, theres an 80A fusible link for your Alternator that should be replaced.

 

What all did you take off?

 

Everything comes on, and the lights and things stay on when I crank it. The radio briefly shuts off but it has always done that.

I took off the wires, distributor, two hoses in front that were in the way and the alternator. Did the repair, then replaced it all correctly. The only mishap was the alternator constant 12 wire sparking when I reassembled.. the 80a fuse is fine and the fusible amp that I could find coming out of the fuse box was fine as well.

 

I would track down the snapping noise you hear near the fuse block.

On my wife's 05 Nissan Altima I bumped it like you did and finally found a fusable link near the battery that was blown. Used a small screw driver to fill in the void and the car fired right up. $25 for the new part fron Nissan.

If you have a small light bulb to use as a "noid light" pull one of the injector plugs and see if the light comes on when you crank the engine.

Cut the tang off of an old spark plug and see if it can jump that gap. It's differant once the plug is inside the chamber with compression, in the open air it takes very little voltage to jump the gap.

But definitely if you hear a snapping noise something is arking.

 

If you have a test light you can use that as a noid light.

 

Ok so I found the fusable link bythe battery, I used my tester and the female end lights up one of the sockets but not the other. On the male end neither of the prongs cause it to light up, this is with the key on but not the engine cranking (I'm alone so can't do both)

Can you explain more how you used the screwdriver, I'm a beginner mechanic at best but its starting to look like this is the problem.

Also I dont have any old spark plugs unfortunately.

And lastly, what is the actual part I will need called, when I was at O'reilly's they didn't seem to have a "fusable link" that I could find.


(edit, the "fusable link" I found might actually mean an injector plug. Its a plug leading from the fuse box with a male and female end. Is this the fuel injector plug? Because we're also not sure that gas is getting to the engine, and trying to figure out if we blew something which I'm assuming could be this plug.)

 

this is the plug I'm talking about

 

if u put a screw driver in the end of the wire and hold it close to ground (motor or body) u will see the spark jump to ground, just dont touch the screw driver metal u will get shocked.

also make sure that the grounds are connected, when mine where not it would not start or run, there is one from back wall to intake manifold and drivers side wheel well to head.

also when u put the dist. back in are u a 100 % that it is in the right spot? i know when i did mine i missed it by a couple teeth and it would not start.

 

I brought this up to a friend about the dist he wasn't sure either, I'm gonna give that a shot tomorrow.

Does that picture make any sense, I'm still trying to figure out what the "fusable link" means, do you just mean a fuse or what?

and by injector plugs do you mean fuel injector? sorry I'm sort of a beginner here.. (these questions are for previous poster, rikshaw)

 

I put it back in with the rotor facing toward the 1 as I saw online, and still nothing. Seems to not be getting fuel as we put a fuel tester on it and got nothing, and no fuel comes out of any of the hoses we take off and crank it.. I'm at a loss still, at this point looking for a good mobile mechanic in seattle.

 

It sounds like you made a mess of things .

Working on the alternator with the battery still connected!!

Open fuse or something still disconnected .

It sounds like the distributor is in wrong.

the engine must be on top dead center to align the rotor with the number one wire on the cap

 

everything is reconnected. I'm looked up what you meant about top dead center. I placed the distributor back in exactly as specified with the rotor aligned from what I found online, but if you can offer any assistance that would be great as I already realized I screwed something up.. I wasn't aware taking the distributor out then putting it back in required a measurement as I just followed a guide I found here. It mentioned nothing about that.

Also not sure what you mean about open fuse or something still disconnected?

 

so looking over the instructions, they said to remove the rotor, and not the entire distributor, so this is obviously a problem, but what can I do to fix it?

 

As Wyoming said, you need to be at top dead center when you put the distributor back in (with the rotor pointing to 1). There is a mark on the crankshaft pulley that, when lined up with the 0 mark on the timing cover means you might be at TDC. I say "might be" because the crank turns twice as fast as the cams and distributor, so it is only at TDC half of the time (good ol' 4-cycle engine).

You can find true TDC, but it is a pain. You have to pull the upper timing cover to look at the marks on the camshaft sprockets. Of course, to do that you have to partially drain the cooling system.

If I were you, I would line the marks on the crankshaft and timing cover up, check to see if the distributor rotor is pointing at 1 (or 180 degrees away from 1), and if not, pull the dizzy and line the rotor up with 1. Put it back together, try to start it up, and maybe it will work. If it does not work, I would turn the crank 1 revolution only and reline up the marks, then repeat the process with the dizzy. If that doesn't work, then the distributor is probably not your problem.

In the future, it is OK to pull the distributor, but make sure you set the engine to TDC first. If the dizzy has not been pulled, you can find TDC by just turning the crank until the marks line up, then popping off the dizzy cap. If the rotor is pointing at 1, then you are at TDC, if it is not, turn the crank one more revolution and it should be. Then, if you pull the distributor, make darn sure not to turn the crank until you put it back on. (this will probably not work for you right now, if you pulled the dizzy without lining everything up first).

 

By the way, when you install the distributor it likes to walk forward a little due to the shape of the gears. You can either adjust for that manually by pulling it and rotating it back a little then reinstalling (again and again if needed) or if you look at the shaft of the distributor there are some marks you can line up that should get it in there right the first time. I usually need to pull and reinstall mine 3 times or so, but it only takes a few seconds, so no biggie.

 

did u check the fuses behind the glovebox to make sure those are good too? also in the drivers kick panel area? i would check them all.

do it by what sturmcrow said to get the dist back in right, is sounds like u just pulled the dist out where ever the motor was at in the stroke and didnt set it to tdc first. so need to get that in the right spot. then check all the other fuses. if still no start then its time to do some testing at points to see if u have power or not. it is sounding like u still have a fuse that is blown.


so u said u are not getting fuel too?

when u pulled the air pipes to get a little room did u make sure they where back on good? also did u mess with the electrical connector on top of the air box? in that meter box on top of the air filter there is a board that meters the air coming in and if its not connected and the tubes from intake to it not connected it will not run or pump gas. just so u know, also DO NOT REMOVE THE SCREWS ON THAT METER FOR THE ELECTRICAL AREA AND PULL IT OUT... u will screw things up inside and cost urself lots of money.