86 power ram 2.6 ignition

[oldirtywizard]

New guy here so forgive me if I'm going about this wrong. I bought an 86 power ram last year while I was commercial fishing and the last few months I've spent with a friend buttoning her up with lots of new and deleting as much stuff as we could from the engine.

My question is about the ignition and why I'm not getting spark. I have a new distributor with a new i.c.m. with the slightly used cap and rotor that was put on by the gentleman I bought it from. Also new plugs, heavy wires, ballast resistor and coil. We tried for about an hour and got 2 little back fires before calling it a day.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? Let me know if I'm missing any specific info to help figure this out. It's been over a year since I bought her and I'm ready to drive my baby and get her broke in. Thanks in advance ladies and fellas

[xboxrox]

There is an ignition igniter chip assembly in the distributor ~ there is gap 0.15"?? to be set on it to the rotating part or it could just be bad ~ but, you have all brand new parts distributor ICM ~ was it you or the P.O. who bought & installed them? Makes me think there was an ignition problem for a long time ?? Guys here will help you get it dixed ~ good luck

[FMS88]

Greetings and welcome to the site. xboxrox is correct to check the air gap between the signal rotor and the igniter. It's .008-.015 for Denso and .030 for Mitsubishi type distributors. Then check the distributor installation. It could be 180* off if it was installed with #1 piston at TDC on the exhaust stroke instead of the compression stroke. Also double check the plug wire routing. If you got a couple of backfires, you're getting spark but not at the right time.
To get more background info in case it could matter, have you replaced or worked on more than the ignition components you listed?

[oldirtywizard]

The previous owner was my former employer who put a cap and rotor on. As of today I bought a new cap and rotor. The coil, wires, entire distributor and plugs are all brand new. It ran and drove when I bought it after a proper test drive. Where exactly is the. 015 gap supposed to be and between which to parts?

[oldirtywizard]

As far as ignition parts, they're all brand new as of this evening. And right now my problem is not getting spark from the coil.
Forgot to mention I also installed a new ballast resistor

[FMS88]

Where exactly is the. 015 gap supposed to be and between which to parts?

Here's a pic of the Mitsubishi distributor with T3T61980A stamped on the side opposite the vacuum advance. Yours might look different but it will have the relevant parts. If your distributor matches that in the pic, the air gap should be .030".

[xboxrox]

Here's a pic of the Mitsubishi distributor with T3T61980A stamped on the side opposite the vacuum advance. Yours might look different but it will have the relevant parts. If your distributor matches that in the pic, the air gap should be .030".

FMS88 is a true mechanic ~ what he said is perfect & what I said is rather screwball ballpark ~ (the Ignition Module black plastic thing with two screws named Pickup in the photo AND Signal Rotor in the photo <---- the space you need to adjust is between the two of these parts and is the Air Gap 0.30" in the photo not 0.15" like my guess) Clear as MUD but think of it as adjusting the points gap in older school distributors...

Use something like a digital multi meter or 12v light probe to ensure voltage at every point where there should be voltage ~ the ignition switch on my truck was worn out and played some not so cool tricks while driving down the road A.K.A. why did the engine stop & why did somebody slam on the brakes YIKES..? Freaking worn out contacts in the ignition switch...

Enjoy the Fix

[oldirtywizard]

Thanks guys. I'm getting under the hood today and hopefully all the pieces yall have donated might be the ones I need to finish this puzzle.