93 plymouth laser - won't turn over

my laser just didn't start one night. i came home after work, went to
go out later, and no go.

my mechanic said it was the distributor, so we got one and that didn't
make it start.
he's still working on it.

it will crank and crank but it won't go that last little bit to turn
over. tried jumping, but of course that did nothing. no other problems.

any ideas?

 

Likely suspects are fuel and spark.

Need to see if you get spark at the plugs. If not (and you have
replaced the dist) it could be the ignition coil.

If spark is good and strong at the plugs then you suspect fuel
shortage. Checking for that is a little more tricky (is there fuel,
what pressure)

 

You might also want to check the ECU, this vintage had a problem with leaky
capacitors. You can check it with a simple DMM or VOM. Google "laser
/Eclipse ECU. There is a site with full details and pictures, on how to do
the repairs.
If you can get someone to do the caps on the ECU (it's simple) the cost in
parts is about $5.00 CDN. A new ECU from Chrysler three years ago was
$2000.00 CDN. Auto wreckers are all over the place with prices. There are
on line sites that will repair them.

I had the same problem with my sons 91 Laser, twice. I checked every damn
sensor in the car, before reading in the service manual, on how to check
the ECU for failure, takes about 5 minutes, you don't even need to start
the car to test it. I have since repaired his ECU's and now he carries a
spare.

 

I have a 90 Plymouth LAser and it doesnt have a distributor!!

 

Lucky you, one less part to go wrong.
Actually it depends on which engine you have. The 2.0 liter has electronic
ignition control (one of two coils are fired under control of the ECU, at
the correct time).
The 1.8 liter engine has the conventional distributer (the ECU fires only
one coil), a rotor distributes the spark.