This car is pretty much all original parts. ODO-175,000. Pulled out on the road and car died. Wouldn't start again. It cranks just fine. There has been a strange hesitation in the starting process periodically over the last few months. It will crank and then briefly stop cranking and then crank again and start. Sometimes accompanied by a loud starter noise. Not sure if this could be related. Anyways, checked for spark and there is none so I removed distributor. Shaft spun freely so I removed cap and the points looked bad and there was a Crack in the rotor so I just went ahead and replaced the distributor. Keep in mind this car has an external coil. Which I had not replaced. Bolted in the new distributor and the car fired right up. I started it multiple times that day with no issues. The next morning I start the car and while it's idling it dies and then goes back to no start but good crank and no spark. I figured well maybe the coil is bad also so I bolted in the new coil but nothing has changed. Still no spark, no start, but cranks just fine. Any suggestions? Could a bad coil have damaged my new distributor in 1 days time? Or could I have just gotten a bad distributor? Does anyone know if a faulty coil can burn up an ignitor? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

 

Try starting it and if it doesn't test for power at the yellow black wire going to the distributor. If you got power, check for continuity on the ignition coil spark wire. It could have an open. It's possible the ecu is bad. You could pop it open and check for burned spots.

It's possible you now have a blown fuse. I've blown a fuse before on a bad coil. Check the 15a ecu fuse in the engine bay fuse assembly.

 

Thanks for the response. So I ended up replacing the ignition swith because I believed it failed a continuity test but still the same intermittent problem. So far I've replaced the distributor which I'm fairly certain was the problem at first. Then the coil then the ignition switch and recently the main relay. Still the same problem. Intermittent crank but no start when the check engine light doesn't turn off. When the cel does not turn off with the key in the on position I will leave it in the on position and watch the tach jump. As the tach jumps I can here some sort of electrical short sound coming from under the hood somewhere in the same are as the distributor. I pulled my own code finally and got 15. Ignition circuit. I'm thinking that there is either a bad ground somewhere that I've looked for and cannot find or its the icm in the distributor. It was just a part store China made distributor so I'm thinking that must be it. Luckily the one I got has a lifetime warranty. If it is a bad ground I haven't the first idea where to look. Do you think I should get an oem distributor or just replace the icm in the Chinese made one I already bought? That's really the only thing left it could be. When it does run it runs like a top. I suppose I could have gotten a bad ignition switch as well but it didn't change anything at all. I would think it would have help up for at least a few starts even if I got a cheap ignition switch. Only thing I haven't replaced is plugs and wires but they were done a year ago and I don't think if there was a bad wire it would be such an intermittent problem

 

I would look at the ecu.