Another no-start situation, 2.0 d-jet, Fixed! Dirty trigger points! Options

[arne]

Car is ‘73 2.0 with stock d-jet. Has been running fine, just passed a PPI last Thursday. Late yesterday afternoon I started it to move it. Started fine, ran normally for 15-20 seconds, then quit suddenly. No sputter, just quit as if the ignition was switched off. Since then it will crank over normally, but no fire. Occasionally a very weak cough, but generally not even that.

I immediately checked for spark, and that is good all the way to the plugs. So it is fuel related.

I’ve got fuel pressure, the pump runs it’s brief priming bit when the ignition is switched on, and appears to run while the engine is cranking.

The sudden nature of the failure leads me to think it is electrical, not fuel supply as such. Also doesn’t sound like trigger points, if I understand those right it seems unlikely that both sides would fail simultaneously.

I’m leaning toward a bad wire or connector of some sort, or possibly a D-jet component that has failed electrically.

Any suggestions on likely causes are welcome!

[BeatNavy]

Assuming you have confirmed spark, you're probably either getting too much fuel or none at all. You need to determine which, either by smell (gas?), pulling the plugs, or pulling an injector to see if it's squirting.

If no fuel, it very well could be trigger points. If the trigger point connection is unplugged, you'll not get injectors on either side to fire. Check injector connections (one or two may be disconnected) as well as injector grounds. If that all checks out, make sure fuel is actually getting delivered to the rail (could have a kinked fuel line somewhere).

If too much fuel, I'd look to see if your CHT connection is disconnected. I suppose maybe a blown MPS, but I think you can generally start the car with a blown MPS.

Those are my first suspects. I assume nothing else major would have messed with the timing, dwell, or anything else ignition related?