Suzuki: cranking my sidekick consistantly, cajun girl, suzuki sidekick

Question
Hi David I so much hope that you can help a little ol' Cajun girl with best friend.  My best friend is my '89 suzuki sidekick LX with a 1.6 Liter motor. Here's the deal...I may right now be able to go out there and turn the key and she'll fire right up and purr like a kitten, no missing no clacking nothing just sounds beautiful we can up all over town or hills do what ever I want. OR I may go out there and turn the key and she'll fire, act like she's going to start but then just crank and crank and never start (usually right after she fires I'll start smelling gas). However if I've parked on a hill or bat my eyelashes just right and get some nice guy to give her a little nudge then she'll fire right easy as pie. I gave her new plugs, that didn't help, tried new rotor cap, didn't work tried new distributor, that didn't work...I don't know what else I can try....even the local suzuki "expert" said he has never seen anything like it...can you PLEASE help me...??

Sincerely,
Diana

Answer
Sounds like you're losing spark.  Get one of those nice guys to pull the coil wire and look for spark, or, you do it while he cranks the starter.  If so, look at all the connections at the distributor (unplug and reconnect them, and look for corrosion in the plug, it's usually greenish, or greyish and kins of fuzzy looking)  Check and see if only turning the key just barely enough to get the starter to crank makes a difference, sonetimes the electrical portion of the ignition/starter switch can get old and not supply power to the ignition(spark) but power everything else.  It's easy, it is fuel, mechanical, or electrical, and your description sounds like electrical.  
scotty