On Mar 21, 11:37 am, melissarwpri...@yahoo.com wrote:

(Also, the dealer hasn't actually seen the car; he is relying on just
what I told him...)

When a timing belt jumps, it normally does it at the crank pulley. This
means the camshaft(s) will be out of time, so the ignition will be off as
well. You'll likely still get spark at the plugs, but it may be weak.

There are only two ways to make sure it's not the belt:
1) Hook up timing light to #1 plug and crank. Check timing at crank pulley.
Timing should be between TDC and the group of three marks.
2) Remove valve cover. Crank engine over by hand (COUNTER-clockwise) with a
19mm socket and ratchet until #1 piston is at TDC compression. Cam marks
should then be lined up. If they're way off, the belt has jumped.

If the timing belt is OK (and I suspect it is), you need to take a logical
route backwards from the plugs. If you followed my advice on how to check
for spark and didn't see any at the plugs, then you need to find out why.

The first thing to check is your tachometer, if you have one. If you crank
and the tach needle is dead-still, then the igniter is bad. If the tach
needle bounces a bit, then it's probably the coil that's died.

If you don't have a tach, you need use a multimeter and backprobe the blue
wire at the distributor connector. While cranking, the multimeter should
show voltage at the blue wire. If it does, the igniter is fine. If it does
not, the igniter is dead.

One thing I've run into once or twice is a failed RF resistor in the
distributor rotor. This will kill the current to the distributor cap and
will then kill the coil.