Wagon's back!
So I finally put aside some time to troubleshoot the wagon. Back when I was driving it daily, it was getting harder and harder to start and would idle like crap. Long story short, I had suspected the distributor, but wasn’t sure. It seemed related to ignition. I’ve replaced cap, rotor, plugs, wires, and even the distributor points.
It looked like it was getting fuel, but the spark seemed weak. This is based on my “expert” opinion by cutting fuel, pulling a plug, crank the starter and letting the plug arc to the chassis. Realizing this wagon is 30yrs old, I didn’t even bother really “testing” the coil... just replace it. It’s $20, there’s an Autozone 200yds from my house, and if the coil wasn’t the problem now, it probably would be in the future.
While poking and prodding around, we took off the cap again to check the gap on the distributor points. Made sure that was set correctly, put everything back together, crank it... No start. ARGH!!
I’m out of ideas, out of cars, and out of time, so I drop it off at Le-Toy Motorsport - a local Lexus / Toyota specialty shop that I take all my cars to. They’re getting to know me pretty well. Anyway, I call up AAA to cash in on one of my 4 free tows I get per year and have them take the wagon down to Le-Toy. Oh, but when they drop it off, they crack the corner mount clean off the wagon’s fiberglass lip. ARGH! So I need to call them up and try to get some money out of them. Hopefully it can be repaired since I’ll probably never find another one for a TE38.
So I drop off the wagon and the Le-Toy guys look at the car for about... 10 minutes. The spark plug wires or cap (can’t remember which he said now) were on backwards. He turns it around and it fires right up.
I’m guessing that the original problem was the coil since the plug wires certainly weren’t the problem when I stopped driving it. So... I’m happy to be rockin’ the PimpWagon again! I missed driving that thing.
It looked like it was getting fuel, but the spark seemed weak. This is based on my “expert” opinion by cutting fuel, pulling a plug, crank the starter and letting the plug arc to the chassis. Realizing this wagon is 30yrs old, I didn’t even bother really “testing” the coil... just replace it. It’s $20, there’s an Autozone 200yds from my house, and if the coil wasn’t the problem now, it probably would be in the future.
While poking and prodding around, we took off the cap again to check the gap on the distributor points. Made sure that was set correctly, put everything back together, crank it... No start. ARGH!!
I’m out of ideas, out of cars, and out of time, so I drop it off at Le-Toy Motorsport - a local Lexus / Toyota specialty shop that I take all my cars to. They’re getting to know me pretty well. Anyway, I call up AAA to cash in on one of my 4 free tows I get per year and have them take the wagon down to Le-Toy. Oh, but when they drop it off, they crack the corner mount clean off the wagon’s fiberglass lip. ARGH! So I need to call them up and try to get some money out of them. Hopefully it can be repaired since I’ll probably never find another one for a TE38.
So I drop off the wagon and the Le-Toy guys look at the car for about... 10 minutes. The spark plug wires or cap (can’t remember which he said now) were on backwards. He turns it around and it fires right up.
I’m guessing that the original problem was the coil since the plug wires certainly weren’t the problem when I stopped driving it. So... I’m happy to be rockin’ the PimpWagon again! I missed driving that thing.
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