Hi guys, just another no start question for consideration. This is in reference to a 1983 240 sedan (188K miles), automatic, with a b230 engine. While I have had issues with the car stalling while driving down the road, I thought I had the issue beat when I simply cleaned my battery terminals and ground. After doing this the car ran brilliantly for a period of weeks.

Prior to this, I have ensured that the following are all good: battery, alternator, both fuel pumps (they were replaced by PO), fuel relay, all fuses including 25 amp under hood, transmission mount replaced, motor mounts look good.

This morning I started the car up (not too cold here in Jacksonville, FL) and it would crank but not turn over. I hooked it up to my wife’s car with 2 gauge wires and it started after a few tries. I let the car run for a bit while I gathered my briefcase and such and as soon as I walked up to the car it turned off. I was unable to get it going from that point.

Fortunately my father-in-law was visiting and he came out wanting to help. The first order of business was to check for spark…I was on board with this and my father-in-law promptly inserted a screwdriver into the spark plug boot and held that to the manifold...got no spark. I was not sure that was actually the way to test it or not so I didn’t say anything...but I did pull out and in-line tester I have and that seemed to verify that there was no spark.

First question….is that how you would check for spark without and in-line tester?

Anyway, after playing with the multi-meter for a while we found that with the key in the ignition and turned to position II (with dash light on) the coil had proper voltage. He told me that when I cranked the engine that voltage dropped?

Does this indicate that there is an ignition problem...or does that sound indicative of a coil issue? The part that I find odd is that with enough extra help (being jumped) it seemed to start...but I had the battery tested (2005 Optima red top) and they confirmed that it was good.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated...I hate posting such a common issue but have been reading older posts on this but not sure I am finding what I need.

Thanks,
Chris