Crank no start after partial overhaul

After a partial engine overhaul on my 1996 Tacoma I’m experiencing a crank no start situation. I’m feeling a bit defeated since I followed the FSM to the best of my abilities.

here’s a list of things that I addressed during the overhaul:
-Valve adjustment
-Cleaned air intake manifold and throttle body (new gaskets for everything)
-Replaced oil pump gasket and front main seal
-Replaced distributor o ring (new spark plugs, cap and rotor)
-replaced oil filter housing o ring
-new gaskets, insulators, spacers for fuel injectors (also cleaned in ultrasonic)
-rebuilt starter
-replaced all tubes that looked cracked

*during the process I had to remove the knock, crankshaft position and oil pressure sensor at certain points

My suspicion is that it’s some type of timing issue since the truck tries to start but can’t. I’d appreciate if one of you sage Tacoma wizards can at least point me in the right direction before I go down a rabbit hole.

here’s some pics of the timing and a vid of it trying to start for reference

 

More timing pictures.

 

No idea if you stabbed the distributor correctly....
Put engine at #1 cylinder TDC compression stroke, does the rotor point to the #1 plug wire tower or close on the distr cap???

If it does, maybe loosen the dist. hold down & rotate whatever direction it takes to start it while some is cranking the ign key....

 

In regards to the starter, is everything plugged back in?

 

I have this gut feeling it’s off. So I checked the distributors position on my other Tacoma at TDC and it looked like it was off a hair. I got it exact and it still sputters and tries to start but nothing. I’ll have to try this …

 

I can’t post the video for some reason but the start appears to be working perfectly fine. The engine turns over and tries to start it ran for a second but it was very clunky making me feel like it’s a timing thing

 

Probably have to upload the video to YouTube and share the YT link.

 

I just posted it on youtube

 

Loosen the base on the distr, turn it while someone is hitting the key....
if it gets worse, turn it the other way....

sounds like you just need to tweak the dist some, assuming if you loosen the base, you can turn it as theres adjustment.

Im not a toyota guru, just a guy with a ton of experience with ford engines...

 

crank to cam timing sounds fine to me by listening to it while youre cranking

 

Is there some adjustment at the distributor?
assuming its like any other car & thats how you set ignition timing using a timing light...
Sounds like you need to advance yours some...
It wants to go...

 

Youre actually suppose to setup the engine to whatever the ignition timing spec is, turn the pulley to that # just before TDC
All fords timing specs back in the day were 10 degrees before TDC..
& then stab the distributor so the tip of the rotor is aligned with the #1 plug wire tower on the cap.
This is easily achieved by holding the dist in your hand with the cap on & using a sharpie place a mark on the outer from of the dist that the cap mounts to.
So youre aligning the rotor to your painted mark & the cap is nowhere in the equation.
That will get you closer, but as long as you have enough adjustment & you get it to specs with the timing light, it doesnt matter..

 

The things about this distributors is that the housing and cap are both bolted in place. The only way adjustments are made is by changing the exact tooth that fits into the exhaust cam gear therefore I can’t really make adjustments while cranking unfortunately… I have an old 73’ dart where I had to do this and it worked great

 

I’m going to have to revisit the FSM. I think I read something about it being between 3-7 degrees.

I’ve been basing my install off of this:

 

I wasnt saying it was 10, was just giving you an example.
is there an adjustment?
meaning the hold down bolt hole is slotted so you can fine tune?
You loosen the bolt & turn the distributor some, whatever makes it want to start more...
Not saying remove the distributor & re-stab it.

Just loosen the bolt, & rotate some.

I may be way off here, if the hold down bolt slot isnt slotted, there is no adjustment.

 

Easiest thing first, check for spark.

Pull a plug and plug it in the plug wire and hold the threaded portion of the plug to the valve cover and have someone crank it over, you should see a spark. If the crankshaft position sensor is not plugged in, unplug it and replug it just to be sure, everything requires a signal from the crank sensor, the fuel pump wont work and the distibutor wont work.

Harmonic balancers are know to slip. Take all the plugs out so that the motor turns easily and put a long wood dowel, thin screw driver etc into the spark plug hole for cyl #1 roll the motor slowly by hand and watch the stick rise and fall. Have the distributor cap off and make note of where #1 plug wire is. While rotating the motor watch the balancer timing ring and the distributopr rotor, if the timing ring is getting close to zero and the stick hasnt stopped its up and down movement it is possible that the balancer has sliped, you will have to do this a few times. If you put your finger on the top of the stick you will feel where it stops moving, this is as close to TDC on the crankshaft as you can get. Look at the harmonic balancer and the distributor rotor. It is taking longer to write this down than it takes to do the job.

Usually these after repair issues are a ground wire(s) were not hooked up.

If she still doesnt start, get back to us.

 

I should add that since posting when I’ve made small adjustments to timing I’m smelling gas after each start attempt. This makes me think that it’s timing or spark issue not igniting the fuel.

I happen to have another Tacoma with a distributor in working order that I used as reference to set the timing, check for TDC using the stick trick that you mentioned. The harmonic balancer is brand new OEM so I assume it hasn’t slipped but I can reassess.

I did a pretty serious overhaul that included cleaning all the ground wires and reattaching them so I’m fairly certain that’s been taken care of.

when I reinstalled the crankshaft position sensor I broke the bracket slightly by over tightening but I thought it was fine since it still sat flush. I think I might start here along with the other sensors.

I really appreciate all the help. I’m desperate to get this thing started. Will report back when I get a reprieve from the rain…

 

Update: somehow there was NO battery to fender ground but the truck was running fine before this project. There was a giant winch hooked up to the battery so when I removed that I must have removed it by accident.

The crankshaft position sensor has a cracked bracket and an improper gasket. I switched back to the old gasket and was really careful not to over tighten it and make sure it sat flush with the engine.

I have a video of my most recent start attempt below. To me it sounds like it actually ran smoothly for one second before cutting out and going back to the crank no start I had been experiencing before.

I also left some pictures of the crankshaft position sensor to see if I should trash it before I spend 100+ dollars on a new one.

 

Here are some pictures of the crankshaft position sensor

 

Get one of these... And see if the spark "goes away".