Toyota Repair: 90 4runner starter problem, starter problem, coil wire

Question
I have a problem that I've read about that seems to be the starter, it clicks when I try to crank and in past would start up after a few times of trying. I'm going to have the starter replaced but now it's hard to even get it to crank and if it does it does'nt start, just turns over and does'nt seem to fire up. I took distributor cap off and cleaned the contact points, seemed to have corosion built up. Could this be the reason why it will not fire up when I do get the starter to turn over, been years since I've had a tune up, could it be the spark plugs? Still reviewing the forum but your help is appreciated.

Thanks, Alan

Answer
It could be the spark plugs but they would have to be all worn very bad to not let the engine run on at least a few cylinders, there may be a complete loss of spark so that's the place to start looking, remove the coil wire from the distributor cap and hold it about 1/2 inch from a ground and see if there is spark when the engine is cranked over,
if so there could be a fuel problem, if there is no spark at all the problem could be the coil, the igniter or the distributor itself.