I recently had a similar issue with my van , It seemed the battery wasnt; charging or something , battery seemed drained. went on a little trip, had some trouble starting, stuck in a new battery. It started ok then..
Driving on a highway with new battery installed . I was putting my foot into the throttle but it just wouldnt go any faster and my check engine came on a couple times.. just after startup then went away after a few mins.. so wondering WTF is wrong now..
when at home I tried starting , no cranking, then jumped from the battery to ground, it started..
I had suspected a bad ground so I had just prevoiusly lifted the cable from the body but it was still connected down under the starter somewhere out of view..
with a wire jumped from the ground post to body ground , it started.
my ground wire had become a little rusted where the bolt holds it ot the body and it would have still started
If the conection near the starter was any good I htik it woulkd have still been grounded near the starter and that would have made it have agood enough ground that I wouldnt have see nit ..
so it seems, in my case , the ground wire had bad contact near the starter AS WELL as to the body.
if you arent; sure its ok Id suggest pull the ground wire clean all the contact points. shot in the dark I know but a bad ground can cause weird issues. Im not sure where my ECU is grounded but thats probably another point I should check.
sounds like a hall effect sensor and there may be some alternate ignition box.
I put my 66 volvo onto one from a 74 volvo with a similar engine and it has a rotating flag in the distributor, in that one it has 4 flages. that spark box I'm sure has no effect upon timing , its just making a spark from the sensor input.
I think that type of sensor needs a voltage fed to it and it gets some sort of pulse feedback which it reacts to to create the pulse to be used for the coil's primary winding. that signal alone isnt; powerfiul enough to directly run the coil primary so there is somethign like an amplifier involved in between.
if you put a small test lamp across the coil and it flashes during cranking , thats how I check to see if I have a primary ignition pulse. if it starts it wil be a dim glow because filimant or an LED can't seem to react that fast.
in my van I hooked up a small LED permanently so if my coil primary stops pulsing I know , and then Im not changing the coil because of no spark, for example , the ignition can't work if the primary looses its pulse.
if no pulse I look back to the creation of the pulse. if I have a pulse and no spark its a problem between the coil and the plugs. I think that dumbs down troubleshooting and I think it works on most cars irregardless of age, if it has a coil its primary should pulse during cranking, by what means the coil is "driven" is another matter.
my 89 volvo 740 has a hall effect sensor and a ECU, later models had the TDC sensor instead. Ive had the sensor itself fail twice.
I found I could buy a cheapo distributor on rock auto for 100 bucks with the cap and rotor, the hall sensor is about the same , in the case of that car the sensor is riveted to the distributor plate so if I can buy the sensor alone then I need to rivet it on the plate.
so is the actual sensor in a cheap made in china distributor the same quality as used if I buy the sensor alone? if its the same sensor im better to buy the junk distributor even just as a spare? steal the sensor from it maybe?
a common fail point is that the distributor Oring wears, oil fumes from crankcase then enter cap area, wires and sensor get oil fouled, you might try spraying it out with a contact cleaner and maybe chase that with alcohol.. a lot of contact cleaners leave an oily residue. ones made for cleaning switches may.
its dangerous to atomize flamable substances so be careful , atomized flamable substances can cause great explosions.. explosions like that can blow the roof off your garage.. so be careful..
but throwing safety aside,, and recognising those dangers.. I'll take a small squirt bottle with alcohol (make sure there is no source of spark, unhook battery.. wear safety glasses.. take car outside.. ) hold my compressor air bottle behind the distributor squirt a bit of alcholol in front of my air noxzzle.. drive it with the spray power of my compressor air nozzle, blasting away any oil contaminants with an alhohol mist and a air jet. that cleans stuff well but be careful please.
I sometimes use brake parts cleaner the stuff I have says its not flamable, maybe that's more safe.. I have to repair electric motors, yesterday I used a half can cleaning a motor for a pipe threading machine , it doesnt; seem to eat the varnish off the windings.. alcohol can for sure hit that explosive threshold if atomized, you can get to that magic percentage and if there is a spark then its not a fire its an explosion and that can really wreck your day !
you can ask the others for opinions , recognise the danger before you do anything completely stupid just because I suggested it. ;-)
if its oily in the distributor you can probably check the bushing and maybe just replace the Oring? oil may get on the wires , there is likely a short lead from the sensor to the connector, clean that.
hall effect sensors are magnetic, one of the parts is a magnet the other is like a tiny light bulb with tiny contacts and the contact is made and broken by magnetism inside a sealed bulb so no sparking..
In machinery I'll also sometimes deal with optical sensors. there are different types of optical sensors
some have a tiny window and the window can become blocked. heres an example just for the visual on those
DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.
duckduckgo.com
with either optical or magnetic ones, if the sensor has a U shape and there is an air gap, a common failure is that the flag is not gapped right , rubs on the sensor, maybe blocks the window or is damaged by the flag.
I've seen cases where it was hard to see at first and the flag had rubbed and then rolled the plastic over the window, often this happens when the disk has a bearing on its shaft, and the bearing failed causing the disk to move its location.
yours is probably the hall sensor type but I thought I'd point out that the optical ones can look quite similar just out of interest and in case you do find one somewhere else. I dont know if they are used in any distributors. Perhaps more common in machinery . I suspect magnetic ones are likely more resistant to contamination.
so check your grounds, check the hall sensor area , hopefully you find something related..
I suspect other vehiles apart from Volvo used such a system in around 74 so if you got one of those I suspect that since its not changing the timing only reading the sensor and reacting with a pulse then it may be possible to transplant those.
as sytems and technology moved forewards and technology changed automakers started doing things like using the knock sensor to change the timing and the ECU making spark advance decisions, thats where things got a little more complex.
the sensors thenmselves are low volts low amps, so the signal needs ot be amplified somehow to be useful.. somethign like an amplifier in between , the ford I have has a module stuck to the distributor. my volvo and porsche 944 have a unit stuck to the fender that is similar, I believe it makes and breaks the ground and the hot to the coil is constant so it may actually be triggering the ground of the coil and not the hot as one may first suspect. you may find heat putty used because that little , lets call it an "amplifier" may generate some heat. different makers may use different terms, Ive heard the term power stage transistor , or similar..
the "module" in my 88 van failed and caused a no start, it failed during time being parked and generated no spark until I found it.
I think your car is older mine is stock and EFI.
sorry I know,, such a long post..
Phil
. I’ve never had a problem with the battery going dead. When I get this problem sorted I might start pulling fuses
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