I went to go to work tonight, and it started rough in the cold, like I'm used to. I didn't think anything of it until about thirty seconds later when it wasn't running like it should be. It felt like it was running on two cylinders. I don't go far to work, so it got there, and I shut it off.

When I went to go home, the car wouldn't fire. The tach bounces, it SOUNDS like it has spark, it has fuel, and it will TRY to fire sometimes. The timing belt isn't broken. I hear about the cars have a crank sensor, but I don't see it, and it wouldn't make sense to have one with a distributor.

Can anyone offer any insight on this? Thanks.

 

Confirm spark, then check cap and rotor, plugs and wires.
Grab the rotor on the shaft and try to turn it hard both ways to make sure the timing gear is still secured to the shaft.
Crank sensors are either good or bad and a bad one would allow no spark to be produced. It's mounted on top of the bell housing.
Ignition modules can work and then not work after warm-up.
Ed

 

Had it in the shop. Got it figured out. I feel a little silly. But a simple broken coil wire did it. I'd had to check for spark at the coil because I tested it alone. I didn't even THINK that if the coil wire is broke, spark at the coil matters not. Oh well, it is back to running good again.

 

Sweet!!

 

Yeah. I haven't had a car with a distributor in almost fifteen years. You forget things. I feel real bad for basically having the car towed to a shop and then having them diag a no start when it was something so simple. I was ready to dig in to a coil or crank sensor, or a busted cam. KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid!