Hello everyone. I'm new to this forum. My cousin has a '94 Defender 90 that I help him with at times. This thing is a blast but unfortunately won't start. It cranks and sounds like it wants to catch but no go. Some times if I let off the key at the right time it will almost sputter a little, but that's it. We put my timing gun on it and gave it a crank and there appears to be spark. The distributor cap and rotor don't look good, but not that bad.The wires don't look factory so I'm guessing they've been replaced already. The plugs looked horrible for a vehicle with 70,000 miles on it so I put in new ones. I can hear the pump kick on, and I smell gas after a little bit of cranking. My cousin makes a lot of short trips in the thing, which would explain why the plugs were so bad. But they were wet, so again, I'm sure this thing is getting fuel.

Well that's where I'm at. Does anyone have any ideas on where to go next? I think I'll order a cap and rotor just to rule that out. Other than that I have no idea.

 

Carefully remove the cap, inspect the cap and rotor for wear and arching. If there is any wear, replace with a"FACTORY CAP" only, after market caps cause big issues. Be very careful when pulling off the rotor cause you can cause damage down inside the distributor.
If that doesn't fix it, may need to replace the crank sensor.
By the way, have you checked for codes?

 

Well, I finally got it running but the thing won't idle down. It sits around 2000 RPM. This made me think the idle air control motor is by-passing too much air (no wonder it wouldn't kick over). When turning the key back and forth from off to on I don't hear this thing doing anything. I pulled the motor and housing off the back of the intake and I can easily blow right through it. There's a 4 pin connector that goes to the back of it. With the key on I'm getting 12v and two of the pins and .5v at the other two. Does anyone know how to bench test these things? Here's a pic of what it looks like (if Autozone.com will let me post the pic). So far Autozone is the only place I could find one, and they're $180 new!

 

Alright, I know you're all on the edge of your seats. I stopped by a local shop last night and they had a tester for Idle Air Control Motors. They said it's actually a GM part. They tested it and it wouldn't work. Then they banged it on the counter a couple times and tried it again, and guess what, it started working. I went and hooked everything up and it fired right over and went to 1200 RPMs and then fell to 950. Purrs like a kitten.