While driving I hit a bump and everything shut down. The headlights work but when turning ignition the usual beeping sound and dash lights don’t work, and no crank.

All fuses are good. Under the hood a handful of exposed wires, including the one from coil to distributor. Would I just tape exposed wires, get a multimeter, and test coil resistance first? The Haynes manual says the ohm range, but states the range for primary and secondary resistance and then it also says under each of those III and IV. Not sure what that’s about..

83 Toyota Pickup 4x4

 

The high tension wire from the coil to the distributor should NEVER be bare. It should have the insulation from the manufacturer on it, end to end, including the two end caps. I can't imagine a reason for it to be stripped, but it's time for replacement. No question.
Did you mean the other wires burned clear of their insulation, or were stripped by someone? If they burned the insulation off you NEED to find out why. You have a bad short someplace! Trace them all, end to end until you find the one, or more, touching ground. They shouldn't be!

If you meant that they looked like someone stripped their insulation off, they shouldn't have. Get some melt wall heatshrink, and cover them up. Tape works fine, but it doesn't last in the environment under the hood. The only trouble with heatshrink, is that you'll have to find an end to the wire, and pull it off so you can slide the heatshrink on. OR, you can cut each wire, slide on the heatshrink to cover the bare wire completely, and then put a crimp on the wire to make it complete again.

Last choice, you can replace the wires entirely, end to end, with a new wire, or cut out the bare portion, and crimp in a new piece of wire. Put heatshrink on each crimp, though.

Other than crimping wires, BTW, if you're good at it, you can solder rather than crimp. Still, cover the solder join with...you guessed it...heatshrink.

No matter what you do, only do it to ONE wire at a time. That way, you can't possibly cross two by accident.

Does this help at all?
Pat☺

 

Thats good to know about electrical tape not lasting with heat exposure. I will see about heat shrink. Possibly cutting some lengthwise, then wrap around exposed section of wire.

Regarding your question, the exposed wire is about an inch section at the coil, possibly from vibration against dirt particles on the engine compartment. The other exposed wires are where a previous owner spliced new connectors over by the battery, I believe for the a/c system. Lots of rough work done around there with exposed splices. I will use heat shrink butt connectors. Thanks!

 

Won't work, I'm afraid. If you cut the heatshrink length wise, when you heat it to shrink it down, the ends will pull away from one another, exposing the wire. You ONLY ever cut heatshrink across the long axis, never lengthwise. It's designed to shrink in diameter, and specifically NOT lengthwise. A slight angle to the cut is acceptable, but never, ever lengthwise.

You mean the high-tension wire? The one similar to the spark plug wires coming off the distributor?
If it's worn bare, replace it. If the center conductor is damaged in any way, it may have changed the resistance of the wire, causing a problem with the energy being sent, via the distributor, to the plugs. Just grab a good quality set of spark plug wires. It will include the wire in doubt. Replace em all. You have to on a regular schedule anyway
I also put a dab of silicone dielectric grease in both ends of each wire. Makes it easier to install, easier to remove, preserves the rubber, and keeps any moisture out. Amazingly good, useful stuff.

Yes, definitely. That's some high-current stuff, right up at the battery. Very important to cover and protect the wires to keep any moisture, battery acid, and so forth, out.
There are butt splices that come "pre-covered" with heatshrink. Kinda handy. Make sure it's "melt wall", or FIT-300, heatshrink. The inner lining of the melt wall heatshrink will melt when you apply heat to it to shrink it, and seal the whole thing up, keeping moisture, etc, etc out.
Alternatively, just get a few lengths of heatshrink, again the meltwall kind, and put it over every exposed splice, wire, whatever. Cut it to fit, just a little longer, 1/4 to 1/2 inch past whatever you're covering. Enough that the inner lining covers all the bare metal completely. I think I got mine in 2 foot lengths from McMaster-Carr.

Make sure any wire you replace completely is the same or slightly larger, gauge, or size. Also, make certain any wire you go to replace isn't a fusible link. It's a wire, with a very distinct size to carry a very specific amount of current, and has extra thick insulation on it, to, hopefully, prevent the wire from burning through and causing other problems. A regular wire will probably not burn through in time, so can cause a problems downstream, or to whatever it's all connected to. IE: No burn through, wires downstream can burn through, or even the actual item the wires feed power to can burn up.

Good luck, and let us know how things go
Pat☺

 

I did cut it lengthwise and as you said immediately found it won’t work. Now, this exposed wire is the one at the bottom of the coil, not the one that goes to the middle of the coil and middle of the distributor. However, the exposed portion looks to be part of a sleeve that comprises thin threads of wire covered by insulation, wrapped around the two inner insulated wires. The outer wires of the sleeve connect to nothing, except at the coil they exit the insulated sleeve and immediately ground to the coil bottom. At the distributor, the two inner wires then meet a connector which is going to the right side of the distributor. It seems this outer wrapping of wire under the insulated sleeve is to serve as rigidity for keeping the two wires from slinging against the fan or perhaps the exhaust.

I’ve only found shoddy work on some connectors that were replaced by a previous owner, so I’ve remedied this. At the steering wheel, the ignition switch connector wires are all intact. However, there’s a little button that’s attached to the ignition switch connector that looks like a breaker reset. When I press the button, I hear a beep similar to when I used to turn the ignition key. No dash lights come on so it’s not solved anything, and if I hold the button while turning the key, the beeping stops.

I’ve scheduled a mobile mechanic to come help.

Thank you, Pat, for the thoughtful explanation. I will write an update when something productive comes.

 

Actually, that sleeve is to keep spurious electrical signals in the atmosphere from interfering with the operation of the sensor in the distributor. The signal out of that sensor is so small in amplitude, that any external signals that get into the wires, like they were an antenna on a radio, would interfere with the operation of the sensor to an unacceptable level. The shield grounds out any signals coming in through the air from anywhere, so the signal from the distributor's sensor can perform it's task properly.
It's the exact same principle as the shield around a coax cable. You cut a coax across, you will see the outer insulation, the shield, woven around another, thick, insulator, and then the inner conductor, that actually carries the signal along. The thick insulation is designed so that there's a specific capacitance between the inner conductor and outer shield. Helps block MORE noise from getting to the center conductor.

Good work on the various plugs. That's always a problem with amateurs doing work they aren't qualified for

NOW the question is, did you put a dab of silicone dielectric grease in any and every plug you might have unplugged, and then plugged back together? Not an absolutely vital thing to do, but it does keep corrosion and dirt and moisture out of the plug. It also helps preserve the rubber a lot of automotive plugs have in them for just that reason. Keeps out dirt, etc. A small dab in the female side of the plug, and when you plug the two halves together, it spreads out through the plug, covering the metal pins and the mating female pins, etc. I use that grease on everything. It really keeps things in much better shape than without. Just me, though. You do you

I hope you get it all squared away soon!
​​​​​​​Pat☺