Background: just finished putting this thing back together after a bunch of projects, including replacing every seal and gasket on the engine (I hate leaks). It hasn't run in about 2 months. Hooked everything up, being real careful that I put it all back together correctly.

Before starting it, I ran the fuel pump by jumpering the B+ and Fp terminal on the diag port, to re-prime the fuel rail since I had installed a new fuel filter. Then I turned it over with the coil wire unplugged to get oil into all the empty places, since I had it all apart. Hooked up the coil wire, it started right up, ran about 2-3 seconds, and died. Now it won't start at all. I'm pretty sure there's no spark. The EFI ECU spits out a #14 code, which points to the coil or ignitor, or wiring for them.

I have checked every single wire and connection in the ignition system, it's all good. The coil checks within spec of the FSM. There is no way to test the ignitor, other then "check for spark".

Do ignitors fail? Did I possibly toast mine by running the starter without the coil wire connected? Am I missing something obvious?

Very frustrating, I've spent a LOT of time, energy, and money on this thing lately, now I can't get it to run. Help me, before I toss a match on it... :mad: :mad: :mad:

You may have fried the coil or Ignitor when you turned it over with out the coil wire hooked up. Not sure about the 3FE ignition, but some modern cars you have the pull the power input to the coil instead of the output (sparkplug like wire from coil to distributor) or it will fry the coil.

I bought a 79 40 that wasn't running due to the ignitor. So I went to the junk yard and picked up about three (two 22R mini truck ignitor/coil combos and one out of a late 70s Toyota Boat (never seen anything like it anywhere else) but it actually had the same part number of a 78 FJ40. I didn't take the coil that they were trying to charge me an extra $20 for and as a result when I wired it back in I wired the coil backwards. The result was I fried the '78 ignitor AND the magnetic pickup mechanism in the distributor. I replaced the distributor easily enough and ran one of the mini truck units. I also now run the other minitruck unit in my 75 FJ40, they work great and no more points.

Chances are you fried either your coil or ignitor. You may have also fried your coil but I think it's doubtful. I don't know much diagnosing any of these parts so I can't really tell you how to check to see if they're blown.

For used parts there is a woman named Jessica in Grand Junction parting out a FJ62 who might sell you one cheap. She's on the LCML, I don't know her email but if you really really want it I can start digging around and maybe find it in archieves or deep into my email program. James Valley at Cruiserparts.net has a good amount of used FJ62s too. His prices are pretty cheap and he's negotiable. If you're feeling spendy maybe snap up the dizzy & coil/ingnitor combo and send back what you don't need. Otherwise start diagnosing?

Good luck -

Thanks for the info, guys. I spent all day yesterday with a meter and my FSM, trying to track this down. Every other part of the EFI system checks out fine, all within spec. I took the coil and swapped it in my '87 mini, the mini still started and ran fine with the Cruiser coil installed, and the mini coil in the Cruiser made no difference. Unfortunately, the ignitors between these 2 trucks are very different, so I can't swap them, I'm afraid I'll cook something. I wish I had a clue what the ignitor even DOES. :confused:

I pulled plug #1, to check spark and verify the distributor installation. I can smell fresh gas on the plug, so I know the injectors are firing. Still no spark.

A friend is bringing me a spare ignitor/coil tonight to try from his FJ62. These friggin' ignitors are $350 new, so used is definitely the way to go for me. I will scan the archives on the LCML for Jessica, see if she can help me out. For reasons I won't elaborate here, I will not deal with James Valley, even though he is just up the road.

Here is where i go for stock type fj 62 questions. not hard core wheeler. but they love their fj62s
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3FE/messages

Originally posted by KLF
Thanks for the info, guys. I spent all day yesterday with a meter and my FSM, trying to track this down. Every other part of the EFI system checks out fine, all within spec. I took the coil and swapped it in my '87 mini, the mini still started and ran fine with the Cruiser coil installed, and the mini coil in the Cruiser made no difference. Unfortunately, the ignitors between these 2 trucks are very different, so I can't swap them, I'm afraid I'll cook something. I wish I had a clue what the ignitor even DOES. :confused:

For me the mini truck ignitor/coil versus a cruiser coil looked totally different. Facing the same dillemma as you ($288 for a FJ40 ignitor) I posted to the list and Mark Whatley wrote back saying you can use a mini truck coil and ignitor and sure enough it works great, if you look at them they have similar wiring, though I'm not familiar with 22REs or 3FEs - just comparing a 22R and 2F. I'm no expert but it appears to me the ignitor is a unit that takes a positive 12V ignition activated, and with the magnetic/electronic system in the distributor (same as points but without points ;) ) figures out when to make the coil light up and fire. Same deal with points, if the coil was always firing you'd go through coils, caps and rotors pretty quick, so it sort of turns it off the coil's 25,000 volts in the gap between each spot on the distributor cap. I hope that makes sense. It's basically just a circut board. I don't know shit about circut boards either except I just finally figured one out for an AC setup we were working on, basically a very complicated switch -- in this case with an ignitor all it's doing is figuring out when to swtich on the power, when to switch it off.

I pulled plug #1, to check spark and verify the distributor installation. I can smell fresh gas on the plug, so I know the injectors are firing. Still no spark.

A friend is bringing me a spare ignitor/coil tonight to try from his FJ62. These friggin' ignitors are $350 new, so used is definitely the way to go for me. I will scan the archives on the LCML for Jessica, see if she can help me out. For reasons I won't elaborate here, I will not deal with James Valley, even though he is just up the road.

Sounds like a good path to take, have him bring over the entire unit then you won't suffer the same problem I did, IIRC it unclips with harnesses so you shouldn't have any problem having it fire up. If it won't then it's your distributor. Easier to replace the whole thing rather than replace just the magnetic pickup.

I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with James. He's always been nice on the phone but never met him in person. But he does in fact have that old '79 I was mentioning in his yard.

Good Luck,
Andre in Utah formerly of Vermont