GT not turning over?? Options

[uberschall]

about a year ago, i had an issue with my ever-trusty '95 hatch not starting. it happened in the parking lot of my old apartment, and after a few days of dead-ending diagnostics, it turned out that the main on the distributor had melted somehow and the issue was fixed.

nothing major happened in between.

now it's stopped running again, but this time it's worse - my girlfriend and i were on our way to catch a train to chicago for new years and the car died - of all places, on the way. fortunately we managed to cover the remaining ground on foot, and the train was running late.

i noticed a few blocks earlier that the idle was dropping at stoplights. it stalled once, and after a few unsuccessful cranks, it turned over and i was able to make it a couple more intersections by keeping the revs higher...before it died again, anyway. after a few more cranks the battery started to give up and i managed to push it into a nearby lot and decided to deal with it when i returned.

so far, i have had the alternator tested (3 times to be sure - it passed), replaced the battery and the battery negative cables (i damaged the old battery trying to get the corroded negative terminal off before i even started working, and the cables looked pretty bad), and also the distributor cap and rotor.

the car is still only cranking and not even attempting to turn over.

i still haven't been able to actually check for spark (i've been working alone) but when i pulled the cap, there was a little oil inside which told me i should replace the thing anyway.

i know i should check the following:

-that i am actually getting spark (which would narrow it down to the coil or ?)
-if i am, i need to check that i'm getting fuel (if i'm getting both...then what?)

sooo....i am hoping someone can tell me if there is anything else i should look into. the car wasn't exhibiting any symptoms before the day it died on me.

i can't go very long without it, but i can't really afford to put it in the shop just yet.

thanks so much for reading.

[silver6gc]

Bitter Posted Today, 11:09 PM
if you hold the throttle full open will it stumble and start after a bit of cranking?

true...good question

This post has been edited by silver6gc: Jan 12, 2009 - 11:15 PM