Hey guys, new to the group new to the samurai world and I’m hoping you guys can help. I just got this old crawler from a buddy who was going to junk it. I got it running and driving for about three weeks until it just stopped producing spark. Since then I changed to a known good distributor and brand new coil... and nada.  I’ve talked with Rod at Rods samurai salvage and he suggested putting a jumper wire from the + side of the battery to the + side of the coil to bypass the harness and still nothing. Im puzzled any help would be grateful.

Thanks

Where are you checking for spark?  At the coil or the plugs?  Was the "known good" distributor swapped along with rotor, cap & leads?

I'm not really in favour of swapping parts to find the problem, I'd rather test first - do you have voltage at the coil positive terminal (you should if you're connecting directly to the battery), do you have voltage at the coil negative terminal (you should if both the coil & distributor are good), does the voltage at the coil negative vary as you crank the engine?  If you jumper the coil negative to ground

Does the distributor turn as you crank the engine?

Hi,
I was  checking for spark at the spark plug.
When I installed the “known good“ distributor I kept the same cap rotor and wires, which are new and ran before.
I do you have voltage at both negative and positive side of the coil.
 I have not checked to see if there is varying voltage on the negative side of the coil while cranking. I will check that tonight .

If you have no spark at the plug, the next thing I would be checking for is spark at the coil - a defective cap or rotor (yes, I understand they are new & worked before) are both possible.

Still no spark at the plugs!! I have put a new cap/rotor. At a complete loss here

So let me ask again, do you get spark at the coil?

Crank the engine with the distributor cap off - does the rotor turn?

Yes, the rotor turns while cranking and I do have spark coming from the coil.

If you have spark at the coil, but not from the distributor, your problem is going to be either the cap, the rotor or the leads - be aware that there are after market rotors that can be installed incorrectly.

Back at it, trying to get this thing running again. Installed new duralast gold spark plug wires and I’m still not getting spark from the distributor to the plugs or wires! Where do I check now??? Please help

I'd suggest you read my last post a second time - there were three items to be checked, you still need to deal with two.

Fordem the coil delivers spark. The rotor is on correctly 100%( accommodates the flat spot). The cap is fine (second one I’ve installed).when you say leads please be more specific spark plug wires, coil wires?

Have you verified the timing is correct?  If you have the timing out the coil will still produce a spark, but, the spark will not be there when the rotor is pointing to the tower so the spark won't show up at the plug leads.

I have not checked the timing. I will check that today

Yelp as soon as I get the cam cover off the starter just clicks. Problems on problem

Okay. So I bumped the starter around until both intake and exhaust rockers were loose and the rotor is on #1 in the cap. What is the next item to check? Thanks