I have got no spark to the plugs, there is voltage at the coil wire going into the cap but no spark to the plugs. The coil sits right on top of a small black box with 2 wires coming out of it. 1 wire is red and goes to the + side of coil the other is blue going to the - what is this unit called and could this be my no spark problem ??

-- Dan Davis (steelman825@mindspring.com), January 20, 2001

Answers

Since the coil is firing the problem logically sits in the distributor.

Check to see if the rotor is in there. I recently was called to a friend's house where he was scratching his head about why his car wouldn't start. He'd taken the distributor off to dry it out after getting a little overzealous with an engine-compartment washing. After a few minutes of tinkering, I asked, jokingly, if there was a rotor installed. We pulled the cap, and lo and behold, the rotor was missing. We grabbed it from the workbench and the car started right up.

Otherwise, there would have to be some other glitch if you are certain the coil is firing, but the plugs aren't getting spark (I suspect you're using a timing gun to see if there is any spark in the wires). Have you checked all wires to be sure all of them are dead? If a rotor is present, are you sure it is the right one?

-- Erik Karlsson (really!) (stabnsteer@rocketmail.com), February 08, 2001.

I had an intermittant no spark problem on my 1990 9ooI that turned out to be the rotor shorting to the rotor shaft , my SAAb mechanic who found this said that he had a number of ten year old rotor buttons fail this way

-- Norm Mauger (mauger@alphalink.com.au), February 10, 2002.