Good morning. I am new to this site and this is my first time posting.I have a 1986 4x4 Toyota pickup with the 22r motor. I have had this bad boy for 4 years and has been great. This is not my primary driver. However, now I am having some electrical issues. Right before Christmas my alternator went out. Replaced with remanufactured from my Carquest parts dealer. Then, first of March my igniter/coil assembly went out. Did all tests, fuel and spark, and determined no spark from igniter/coil assembly. Replaced igniter and coil with Standard Motor products parts. Ran great for a week, then truck just died. No sounds or warnings. Towed it home and did spark tests. No spark from igniter and coil. I am wondering if alternator is not functioning correctly, so, pulling out the alternator and going to have it tested before spending another $340 on igniter and coil. I am lost. Any advice?

 

Welcome to the forums!
First, welcome to owning a 30+ year old truck. Things go bad. It happens, as the saying goes.
Second, when you go to replace parts that fail, always, ALWAYS, try to get OEM parts. Try to find a remanned Denso alternator. Especially try to find to find the OEM igniter and coil. After-market parts that are designed to fit MANY vehicles don't fit a particular vehicle very well, if at all. Check places like RockAuto, YotaParts, and so forth, and only buy parts like Denso, Aisin, and so forth. Japanese made parts are probably OEM. Heck, look how long the OEM parts from the factory lasted you!

Having said that, did you happen to notice, when you replaced the alternator, if the power steering pump was leaking down onto/into it? That's a common problem, and that will cause alternators to fail frequent;y. Usually caused by the gasket where the pressure hose attaches to the pump. If that's the problem, fix it before replacing the alternator again.

Test the alternator before replacing it, too. Just read the voltage on th battery positive terminal, negative on the case of the alternator, or engine block. It should read 13.7-14.7VDC when the truck is running. Any higher, or lower, the alternator is bad. If it's OK, I'd say you blew the coil or ignitor.
You can check the coil/ignitor to see if it has spark, by connecting the inductive pickup for your timing light to the wire going to the distributor. If the light flashes, you have spark. You can also check to see if the plug wires coming off the distributor have spark on all of them. That verifies the distributor, and the wires.
Make sure the ground going from the head to the firewall right behind it is good. That's where the plugs get their ground from. No ground, no spark. Also check the ground from the battery negative terminal to the body. If it's not good, the ground for the head isn't going to have a path back to the battery. Again, no spark.

Pick up a copy of the FSM, the Factory Service Manual, for your year truck. Look around these forums. They have them in PDF format. It's a great source of information, including how to test various parts, repair all the parts that are repairable and so forth.

Is any of this helpful?
Pat☺

 

Thanks for the input. The alternator tests fine. I had already checked grounds and spark before replacing igniter/coil first time. I guess using after market parts, this time around, bit me in the butt. I will just bite the bullet and spend the money on OEM. Thanks again.

 

Small price to pay for OEM, when you amortize over the lifetime they have. Just look at how long the originals lasted

Have fun!
Pat☺

 

I replaced the ICM with an OEM part, the truck ran great for a week then stalled while driving. No restart. Towed home. I was just messing with wires and fidgeting when I accidentally placed my hand on the positive terminal of battery while I had my key on( BTW, the truck would put out power while key was turned to on and starter would crank, just wouldn't fire). The damn thing felt like it bit me! Was super hot! I replaced battery cables and terminals on both sides. KAPOW! Fixed all of my electrical problems. SOOO folks, the moral of the story here is always start with the easy and cheapest fix first! I was overthinking it. Could've saved myself a lot of time and money if I would've just kept it simple. Thanks to 2toyguy for input. I hope this helps a lot of guys in the future.

 

It never hurts to try the easy first but it is never an excuse for not trouble shooting .

poor connections always get hot.