TURNS, DOESNT START

[cristo67]

Ive put 900 miles on a newly purchased 91 Loyale, now she turns over and doesnt start. This happened while driving, coming out of a stoplight.

[scoobiedubie]

Before you do anything, pull your distributor cap off and lightly sand the corrosion off of the electrodes in cap. Also scrape corrosion off of the end of the rotor. Also check both ends of all plug wires for green corrosion. Also check the wire from your coil for attachment and for corrosion.

 

You then need to determine whether it is not getting spark to the plugs, or gas to the cylinders. If you are getting gas, after turning the car over and immediately removing any plug, the plugs should be drenched in gas. If no gas on the plugs then the fuel pump would be your first choice to replace.

 

If say you connect a timing light to the vehicle, and the timing light blinks, then you are getting spark. Or you could pull a wire out of the distributor cap, pull back the black rubber end protector to expose the end copper connector, hold that connector just above the distributor cap hole that it belongs to, and have someone else turn the engine over. If you can't either see or hear spark, then you have electrical problems. Look for other threads on electrical issues with loyales.

[NorthWet]

IMHO, the 2 most likely causes are a broken timing belt or the screw that holds on your distributor's rotor fell off.

 

Does your engine show any signs of trying to start? does the cranking sound odd (not a steady turning-over sound)?

 

Pull the distributor cap (check for obvious damage to it and the rotor), and then try to turn the rotor by hand:  If it turns, you have lost the set screw that goes through the side of the rotor.  If it doesn't, either ground-out the coil lead to the distributor, or (better yet) unplug the distributor from the harness; then, crank the engine and see of the rotor turns.  If it does not turn you have broken the t-belt on that side.

[MilesFox]

If the timing belt is broken, you will not get fuel or spark. Easiest way to check is to take off the disty cap and watch for the rotor to turn when cranking.

 

You can check for fuel pressure by cycling the key off and on as the fuel pump will run for 2 seconds each time. If the fuel pump is not working while cranking, check for a broken timing belt.