KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

Try running another ground from the long alt bolt to the factory ground spot on the drivers side strut tower. This might improve the voltage and ground issue.

midnight mechanic

By "my fusible links are fine", you mean you checked things out electrically? On a different car, I had a short somewhere. The problem was that it was so old the fuses built up insulating oxides.

And so as to get me up to speed, you troubleshooted things to both coils not sparking.

And for anyone here WTF do we need igniters for? What advantage are they?

ThirdPedalNirvana

Thank you for this info. I will check all my fuses and my coil ohms tonight.

I cannot tell which connector on the igniter is the + wire. Both have the same voltage when the ignition is on. Can you clarify which connector is which?

GSLSEforme

I don't know if i'm not being clear on what steps and in what order to take to eliminate potential reasons for your car not running. I went back and reread my responses to you. In 1st and 2nd posts i described in detail how to begin diagnosing and eliminating potential causes right down to testing if igniters are firing coils and the two tools you NEED to diagnose your car,a multimeter and a test light.I even made a clear distinction between a test light and a timing light and their intended use. In your next post you refer to it as a timing light again. Reading comprehension? I don't know. Seems like you're looking for shortcuts to get your car running I think you need to go back and reread my posts. I feel no need to rewrite it all. Buy a test light,you need it...

You can disagree testing coils the way you are is meaningless,but it is. Nowhere in any service manual for any make of car will you find a procedure like that for testing ignition coils. Again reread my posts regarding results of doing this. Real simple,if you want to test output from ignition coils,THE only way to do so is to remove coil wires from dist cap and hold @1/4" from a good ground and watch for spark as you crank it. The 30k volts needs somewhere to go-besides down the coil tower spiking the low voltage part of ignition system.
Again reread my instructing you to remove all plugs,inspect them,put them in their wires and ground them on engine.The reason? With minimal work you can evaluate entire secondary ignition system quickly,safely. Pulling plugs too much work? Maybe rethink trying to repair this particular car.

All diagnostic tests on electrical system of any car depend on a fully charged battery for accurate usable results. I told you what a fully charged battery should test at,you respond that car cranks over fine and accessories operate sufficiently. The reading you post that your battery shows means the battery is less than 3/4 charged. The 11.9 volts you see at coil+ is absolute minimum. What do you think happens when you crank the engine over? That 11.9 volts drops down to low 10 or less meaning if the ignition system were operational the voltage being produced by it may not be enough to start a car that wants to run. Rotarys are very demanding of their electrical/ignition systems. The .3 volt drop in wiring is more than it should be and is more due to 33yr old wiring and increased resistance that goes with it. This alone will not keep car from starting/running,it didn't before. You can begin to appreciate how important a fully charged battery is to overcoming the inherent resistance and voltage drop that results.

The relay on your car is not factory,that is a bosch type common 4 pin relay. The oe relay right below it is what comes on Japanese cars-for years,not just Mazda. I am certain it has nothing to do with your ignition system for the simple reason that it was disconnected and your car ran...to put this to rest,trace all the wires from origin to destination and you should have an idea of why it's there.

No mention made of testing all the fuselinks or fuses,i suppose because you don't have a test light to do it. So it is determined that you have voltage to ig coils The feed wire from ignition switch to coil primary positive is black/yellow. The igniter feed wire is same color,comes from same source in loom. The other wire in igniter connector is black/white and it goes to the ignition coil negative primary terminal. It is the switched signal from igniter that fires the coil. There is no shorting of anything that causes coils to fire.
In key on position,ignition switch feeds both coils and both igniters. As the distributor shaft turns it excites the windings in pickup coils causing them to generate an AC current that the igniter uses to switch coil voltage from high to low. The low voltage at coil primary negative terminal causes magnetic field in primary windings of coil to collapse and induce secondary windings to discharge the high voltage to coil wire/cap/rotor/plug.

The information you are sourcing from the internet is referencing a points/condenser ignition system. The condenser in that system acts as a shock absorber to save the point faces from arcing/pitting/burning as they open and magnetic field in coil collapses. It has nothing to do with controlling spark in distributor or at plugs. The pointset/condenser is on the primary side of ignition and coil,wires/cap/rotor/plugs make up the secondary side of system.
The condenser on your car you're trying to apply the above information to is only there to provide electrical noise suppression,nothing more. You will note that the wire that connects to it is black/yellow,the same circuit that supplies coils and igniters.
The ignition coils can be tested using an ohmeter. The primary windings should have 1-3 ohms and to check them you connect your ohmeter on lowest ohms scale to each of primary terminals on coil after you have disconnected all the wires from them. Secondary windings should have 5k-8k ohms resistance and are checked by touching one ohmeter lead to either primary terminal and the other lead down hi tension tower touching terminal at the bottom of tower. Ohm scale setting 20k ohms.
Highly doubt coils are source of your problem,very unlikely both fail at same time.

I purposely did not go into detail listing all these tests and how to do them as some people are looking for a shortcut and skip steps to do what is easier/faster aka chasing your tail.

There are resistance and voltage tests that can be done on pickup coils,they're not Mazda listed tests. These components like ig coils have proved very reliable over the years,short of physical damage very rarely fail and wouldn't be 1st thing i'd check. Only after performing tests outlined previously with no concrete determination would i come to test these.
You should test black/white wires from igniter to ignition coil for continuity and shorting to ground. Then i suppose you can test igniters. Tests for them can be found in FSM. You could google how to test or do a search on this forum. I've written enough on this subject in this thread and don't think there's any way i can help you further. My posts give you all info needed to correctly diagnose your problem.

ThirdPedalNirvana

Take a look at the wiring diagram. If the fusible link that serves the ignition system was blown, I wouldn't get lights on the dashboard when I turned the ignition on. I wouldn't get any voltage at the coil or the igniter. I have both those things. As far as I can tell without a timing light, the coils are getting consistent 12V (or roughly, 11.9V measured). But the spark event is triggered by grounding one side of the coil momentarily, causing the magnetic field in the coil to change rapidly and produce a spark. That grounding does not seem to be happening, because if it were, and assuming the coil has not gone bad, it won't. This momentary grounding (on the trailing coil) is what the tachometer reads, and the tachometer is not reading.

What do you mean why do we need igniters? This isn't a 1979 with points. This is a 1985. The igniters are what take the signal from the magnetic pickups in the distributor and short the coil primary at the right time to produce the spark. Igniters (and magnetic pickups) are what replaced points. Without the igniters, what would cause the coil to spark?

If I had just lost the trailing ignition, I would presume at this point my trailing igniter failed. But since I know both my coils were sparking correctly and then suddenly neither were, it seems too fishy that they'd both fail at once.

Based on the wiring diagrams I've seen, there are no fuses or fusible links which would allow the ignition system to have power, and have all the lights and accessories and everything work on the car, but not let the ignition system detect the motion of the distributor shaft and cause the spark event. If anybody knows of a fuse that would prevent the igniter from working, please let me know.

GSLSEforme

In answer to your question,read my posts in this thread.

ThirdPedalNirvana

Ah, I see I was conflating two different devices. Thank you for clarifying. I will seek out a test light.

This is a good test procedure to confirm what I suspect, that the coils are not firing. I observed the coils readily sparking from the high voltage terminal to the body a few months ago, so I assumed that I would be able to see the spark without using the wires as you described, but you're right that I should at least confirm that there is no spark even when trying to cross a 1/4" gap.

Removing the spark plugs isn't "too much work" for me. I've done timing belts and clutch jobs on cars before. They are a bit of a pain, because i can't get a socket wrench on them with all the A/C and power steering gubbins in the way. My main point is that if I can confirm that the coils are not generating a spark, what the heck good can it possibly do to remove my spark plugs?

I will have to remove my battery and put it on a trickle charger, as my car cannot make it up my driveway. I'm surprised to hear that 12.2V indicates a 3/4 charged battery. I've never seen more than 12.6V on a lead acid car battery when it's just been fully charged. And I know my RX-7 has started before with a battery reading below 12.0V.

Agreed, I'm not worrying about that relay anymore.

Unless I'm missing something, the ignition fuselink would need to be OK if ANYTHING which gets it's power from the ignition terminal on the ignition switch recieves power, as the fuselink is between the battery and the ignition swich. I'm assuming fuselinks work like fuses in that they are either OK or BLOWN, with no failure mode in between. If that's the case, then my ignition fuse link must be OK by process of elimination.

Do I need to cut my harness open at the igniter plug? It's fully wrapped with insulation so I can't see the color of the wires at the plug.

Ok, point taken that "shorting" is an inelegant word to describe it. What I mean is that a 12v+ signal is switched momentarily to 0V to cause the spark, then it returns to 12V. I was using "shorting" to mean "switching quickly to ground voltage".

OK it sounds like we are on the same page here. Assuming this switching is NOT occuring, and the black/white wire is not being switched down to low voltage, what are the possible causes of this failure? Can any explain why both coils stopped working at the same time?

I agree, but thank you for the comprehensive testing procedure. I will try to check this tonight.


Again, thank you. Checking continuity is a good idea. I think I'm going to print out this thread and try to identify all the "tests" you say need to be done. I'm still convinced that I have confirmed that the issue is not on the high voltage side of the ignition system, and that checking my plugs or the upper part of my distributor is wholly unnecessary. I was hoping there was some component known to fail which would prevent the igniters from doing their jobs.

ThirdPedalNirvana

@GSLSEforme I am making a cheat sheet to go through all the tests you enumerated. I want to order a test light but I'm not sure exactly what i'm supposed to be looking for. I know what a timing light is. Can you post a link to a test light I can buy to use for this situation?

GSLSEforme

We,actually you are not on the same page...i make my living repairing automobiles,for a long time. I don't know what you do for a living but it's not repairing cars. My livelihood depends on me making the correct diagnosis as quickly as possible the 1st time. To that end i have developed methods to quickly break down different systems to rule out certain subsystems as not the fault for the complaint. When i "suggested" you pull the plugs...there were several reasons.1st to inspect condition of plugs. 2nd to test the COMPLETE secondary ignition system. You don't seem to get the distinction between checking coils vs the whole system. This is real simple and quick,if you have no spark at any of the plugs,leading/trailing secondary ignition is not present,so now you check primary side of ignition system from the power source to the triggering of coils.3rd reason to pull plugs is to make it easier on both the starter and battery so they're not fighting against compression for the possible extended cranking for testing of different components. You will have a severely discharged/dead battery otherwise and more wear on starter than necessary.Reasons for everything i "suggested" to do and the order in which to do them.

Back to testing of coils,what you think is ok to do is not. Every time you do that it is potentially damaging to other parts in system,there is no value in it only harm. The ONLY way for you to test coil output quickly,safely is the way i outlined. Consult any repair manual for any make car there is and you will never find what you're doing as an acceptable test for coil output-because it's potentially damaging to delicate parts of system like igniters,modules,etc. But you wholeheartedly disagree...Consider the damage a lightning strike does to breaker box in your house when max voltage it's rated for is 220 and lightning strike could be a million volts. Do any reading at all about FB ignition and it's apparent how frail a J109 is.

12.2 volts is less than 70%state of charge.12.8 is fully charged good battery. 12.6 acceptable..5 volt does make a difference both in battery state of charge and system operating voltage.
We're not talking about your car starting with batt.voltage below 12.0. The concern is testing.To get accurate test results-for any electrical diagnostics,they must be performed with a fully charged battery or all test figures are skewed and of no real value. That 11.9 volts at the coil with key on should be 12.2 at least. The 11.9 which gets pulled down to under 10 volts easily on partially discharged battery during cranking,will have your ignition system down 8-10kv when you need it most.

Why would you cut the harness open at igniter? I gave you wire colors of feed and return wires to/from igniter. Disconnect connector from igniter and set ohmeter at 200 ohm scale and connect one test lead to respective coil primary positive and touch it to one of either terminal in igniter connector. Infinite reading,switch to other terminal in connector. @.5 ohm what you're looking for. Leave test lead connected to igniter terminal and touch other lead to negative battery post. Any reading other than infinite indicates possible short to ground. Repeat this with other igniter connector. While ohmeter is out,disconnect all wires from both ignition coils and test them to specs i gave you previously-don't assume anything. When you test the coils you will know if they are good or not and move on with diagnostics.

The idea behind all this is to systematically work your way thru all the components,wiring and connections to rule them out and hone in on actual fault.
It is highly unusual for both ig coils to fail simultaneously,same for both igniters. You have an idea on how to test igniters and i would do this after you are certain no other components or wiring has faults. Should both igniters test good then time to test pickups in distributor. The best way to test these is with an oscilloscope to check frequency and voltage of generated signal. Not everyone has access to this equipment or how to use it. Multimeter can be used for a couple other type tests but Mazda has no test specs for them but they can be tested. For all tests on pickups,the engine must be cranked over at as fast an rpm as possible-again why you pulled plugs back in the beginning of testing.

A couple thoughts on igniters. Heat is their enemy,they are bolted to distributor body to unload heat generated inside them into distributor housing. To assist them in transferring heat and to live they have/need thermal paste applied to back side to help transfer heat away.Skipping this step ensures a short life. The other enemy is extraneous high voltage. When you've eliminated all but igniters as possible cause of no run,remove them for testing and take note of presence or lack of white paste on backside. IF both the igniters are determined to have failed,a common cause needs to be found

GSLSEforme

Look on Autozone website: Innova #3410 12 volt test light circuit checker @$10. Go on website to see what it looks like. Am sure Advance Auto has equivalent test lights. One listed at Autozone is a good price,you can buy more expensive ones but they don't work any better.
Cheaper ones are less sturdy and their bulbs aren't as bright,more difficult to see in bright light(sunshine).

ThirdPedalNirvana

As you probably suspected would happen, Here's my Mea Culpa moment, sort of. I just ran through the following tests:

BODY ELECTRICS: (radio, blower, all lights, wipers, etc) are all functional.

FUSES: are all good (no measurable resistance, zero ohms).

COILS: They both read 1.2 ohms across the primaries and 8.5K ohms out of the secondaries. That is outside the 5K to 8K range specified here, but barely. Is this OK?

WIRES FROM IGNITERS TO COILS: no measurable resistance, zero ohms, when measuring the correct terminals. At first I thought I was getting 1.2 ohms but I realized that was because i was connecting thru the coil.

SPARK TEST: I pulled the coil wires out of the dizzy cap and tried to see if I could get a spark to the body. The Trailing coil is not sparking at all. However, the leading coil IS sparking, it's sparking orange.

SO.... Mea Culpa, since my battery isn't 100%, I can't tell if the orange spark on the leading coil is because of a problem or because of the battery voltage. I pulled the battery out and put it on a charger. I will try to get a spark from both coils again once it's charged.

ThirdPedalNirvana

Sorry, I meant no disrespect. You're quite correct that my job is not fixing cars. I am a Mechanical Engineer. I only meant we were on the same page regarding how ignition works, not this whole ordeal. I understand you have much more experience and knowledge than I do, and I don't profess to be your equal in RX-7 knowledge or diagnosis. I've just been stressed about this car continuously for the past 3 months because it wouldn't pass smog, and now that it does it crapped out on me my first drive after getting new tags. I also have a compulsion to gain a complete conceptual understanding of everything before I start doing anything, which is a self-defeating trait probably common to many engineers.

Thank you for diving in and saving me from my own ignorance. I definitely see why testing the coils as I was is dangerous and harmful. I am now exclusively using the test you outlined, disconnecting the wire from the dizzy and holding it within 1/4" of ground. I wonder now if performing the "stupid test" when I was dealing with the bad wire issues put enough strain on my trailing igniter that it caused it to fail. If I get hot spark with the fresh battery on the leading coil but nada from the trailing, that's likely it

Mea Culpa. I was ignorant and pig-headed and I made an *** out of myself.

\

Because I can't see what the wire colors are at the igniter plug, the harness insulation covers it. I had to use process of elimination, not hard since there are only 2 terminals. From one terminal it would read 1.2 ohms and the other 0. I was hoping to know which terminal was which.

Again thank you so much for your experience and expertise. I will continue to dig until I find the fault.

midnight mechanic

I would, but I got lost in your ponderous posts. Could you do an abridged version?

t_g_farrell

iTrader: (1)

Ok, deep breath time. Just go through all the stuff Mike mentions (GSLSEforme). He's been a mazda and other car mech for decades and his advise is always spot on.

For your specific issue there is no easy to point to cause, you will have to root cause it using Mikes help. It will be interesting to find out what caused the failure while going downhill.

GSLSEforme

Coils SHOULD be ok,ohm testing is but one way of testing,but really only test available to home mechanics. The 8.5k spec is fine,no two coils are exact and that's not far enough out of range to think of condemning it.
You now know you have a working albeit weak leading system,you can swap trailing coil into leading coil position and test it same way. If results are same,odds are both coils are ok. As far as leading ignition spark color,it should be blue,the battery being discharged could be a factor in weak spark,i think there's more going on. What spark plug are you running in your engine?

Puzzling is no trailing spark but the carb bowls are full-this is where having eyes on plugs,preferably sooner than later helps diagnosis. I have seen trailing ignition too weak to fire coil/plugs but still able to trigger fuel pump and tach but you say tach worked previously but not now. Has the fuel pump feed circuit been rewired?
While ohmeter is out check resistance of both coil wires and post results. I know they're "new"-new doesn't matter to me-test them anyway.
It is possible the "stupid test",lol,more likely the one before it when you replaced the wires? could be the reason for igniter failure, At this point that is unknown and may never be proven to be cause.

I don't take much here personally, my aim is to keep as many of these funny little cars on the road as possible. I try to help as many as possible,some one on one to get/keep their cars running. I don't expect you to take what i say as gospel. What i have recommended for you to do and in what order is a tried and true logical procedure to eliminate one at a time components that make up the system,the power that runs them and the wiring that interconnects them in a way that's least labor intensive and shortest amount of time. To give you an idea of timeframe for diagnosis of a problem such as this@1/2 hr,45 minutes,likely round that off to an hour as most shops would.
The part where it becomes tedious-for me-is having to rewrite what i already posted and ask you to reread my original posts and then politely convince you that what you know to be true isn't and tests you're doing have no value and may be complicating your original issue.Explaining how something works,how you test it and why you test it that way isn't easy for a lot of people to pick up and takes patience both on their part and mine.

My suspicions are the igniters(likely both) are the underlying issue,you could just replace them. You could be lucky and it's no more than that and your car runs. You could also replace them and car won't start or start and run for for no longer than a few minutes because there is some other fault in system that possibly caused them to fail initially and just ruined the ones you replaced and you would assume it has to be something else causing the problem because the igniters are new and they can't be bad...so you start replacing parts wholesale-unless you did a full diagnostic procedure and you know for certain they are bad and can be sure there's nothing else wrong with ignition system that can damage replacements.

When you get to the point of removing/inspecting igniters after checking everything else,look closely at connectors for signs of corrosion or heat. Post a pic of backside and dist housing where they reside. I 'll direct you on how to test pickup coils to eliminate one more component.

GSLSEforme

Don't feel my post(s)are ponderous. Reread my responses,the info you need to understand system operation is there.
Your opinion of mechanics/technicians/skill level/trade in prior posts is duly noted.

ThirdPedalNirvana

@midnight mechanic the igniter is the electronic device which reads the AC signal induced in the magnetic pickups inside the distributor to in order to time the spark. When spark is required, the igniter drops the output voltage to the coil from 12V to ground momentarily, which makes the coil do it's thing (magnetic field collapse, high voltage induced in secondary, zap).

If I'm not mistaken, you can do away with the igniters, but only if you go to a direct fire ignition system.

midnight mechanic

then Igniter = condenser ?

midnight mechanic

I meant thirdpedalnirvana , and in short he traced the problem back to coils not firing.

And I'm not a professional mechanic nor have ever been one. I'm just a hack that gets a kick out of keeping a 36 year old daily beater on the road. And right now I'm very curious about third's sudden ignition loss, and feel his frustration. I've been there.

My experience with professionals, and dealerships is that they cheat, lie, and steal.

GSLSEforme

That’s sad for you,maybe search a little harder,ask someone who takes their vehicles to same place for a long time to tell you how satisfied they are with the service they get.
Usually people/family/relatives don’t patronize the same automotive repair facility for decades because they’re being ripped off and mistreated.
Again,I don’t take this type of generalization personally as there are some mechanics that deserve their bad name. Making a blanket statement about all technicians as no good,thieves Just doesn’t apply to the majority that have honed their skills to the point of being a “professional” with the work ethic that goes with it. While it is true they may not make as much money as the thieves you refer to, they don’t have to look over their shoulder,they can hold their head up and look you right in the eye.
Customers seek out technicians/businesses like this and long term with the customer base they develop stand to profit more from word of mouth testimonials than the type of establishments you appear to be familiar with,again,unfortunate for you.
Try a little harder to find a reputable repair facility,they’re out there,lots of them.

ThirdPedalNirvana

Nope, the condenser is a device which has some kind of capacitance and it protects the circuit from excessively high voltage spikes, i think. Anyway a condenser is NOT an igniter.

Ponderous, long winded, wordy... however you want to put it. That's me. Sorry.

ThirdPedalNirvana

So I reinstalled my battery today, with a whopping 13.4V of juice in it. It's ok, I know I'm a dumbass for thinking 12.2V was charged. I checked my coil voltage and it was about 13V. I'm not sure where the voltage drop is.

I checked my spark from the coils using the wires again. Again, the trailing coil has no spark. The Leading coil is sparking, but the spark is still not white. It's more yellow than orange, but It's definitely on the colder side for a spark. I'm not sure if this is an issue, because....

When I was testing the trailing coil, the engine tried to start. It actually caught and fired once or twice and then died. Not surprising since the engine is cold and I didn't pull the choke. However, it does seem that the yellow spark is enough to ignite the fuel/air mixture in the engine. I am not sure why there is still fuel in the carburetor if the trailing ignition is what confirms that the engine is running for the fuel pump to run. I've jumpered the fuel relay before to force the fuel pump on, but it's not jumpered. Who knows, clearly this car went to a MacGyver Mechanic at some point in its life. If the fuel was shut off due to no trailing spark and that is what caused the engine to die, it would make sense, but there is some gas in there.

Actually, now that I think about it, the engine was spinning (engine braking) while I went down the hill. I kept it in gear so my power steering kept working. If the fuel pump was running it should have flooded it, if the fuel pump wasn't running the float bowls should've emptied. It's a mystery, but the fact that one of my igniters doesn't seem to work isn't anymore. And since the engine tried to start, there's a good indication that given spark at both coils it will.


My plan is to swap the igniters and see if that gives me trailing spark but no leading spark. It's hot as hell today so I'm not going to do it tonight.

GSLSEforme

Direct Fire Ignition, DFI for short,is exactly that. Trailing and leading coils now become leading coils and coil wires go direct from them to both leading spark plugs,bypassing the distributor altogether. Since the spark doesn't have to jump the gaps between rotor/cap terminals that lost energy goes right to spark plug,much like a modern car. The trailing ignition uses a 3rd ignition coil and its coil wire goes into dist cap in trailing position and distributes spark to trailing plugs as before.
DFI uses ignition modules, GM style HEI modules are most common. Think of them as a heavy duty replacement for OE J109 igniter.
The pickups in distributor generate a signal/voltage each time reluctor passes them and igniter/module uses that signal to switch coil negative primary voltage from hi to lo to fire the coil.
The GM HEI style ignition modules have a longer dwell cycle than a J109 which charges the coil longer for a more potent spark. There are aftermarket performance modules with ratings of 7 amps and the spark generated from these with the proper ignition coil and high energy plug designed for the voltage really packs a wallop.

When i was bench testing the components/circuits for the system now on my SE on my workbench with a battery,Chrysler electronic distributor as a trigger,2 performance HEI modules,2nd gen FC leading coil and a hi output ford style TFI ignition coil the spark generated on 2 spark testers,this particular type looks like a sparkplug with no side electrode and the spark jumps from center porcelain right to side of tester @3/8". Color of spark is blue/purple and the snapping sound of spark from each coil firing is quite loud turning distributor shaft slowly by hand. It goes to a loud buzz that sounds like the arc from a mig welder or plasma cutter by spinning dist shaft between thumb/forefinger quickly and releasing. This is maybe 100 rpm for about 3 seconds.My workbench is metal and i made the mistake of leaning against it while spinning up distributor,i got bit thru my t shirt strong enough that made me jump.

This type of system requires custom made wires large enough to contain all the energy generated by the modules/coils. The feed for entire ignition system is put on a relay direct to battery from underhood fusebox to give system a good power supply with plenty of amperage. The original wire from ignition switch that provided power to coils now triggers the relay taking all the original and now extra load off the ignition switch and it only has to deal with the milliamps to power the relay on.Leading plugs are RX8 Denso iridum racing plugs,trailing are oe BR8EQ-14 NGK plugs
.
Effects of this ignition system on my car as well as others...Car fires immediately on cranking the key. The idle sounds..different. Car exhibits noticeably more low end torque and more power thru complete Rev range. System complements streetport exhaust well,exhaust note particularly when aux ports open has a raspy snarl to it not there before. Added benefit,if you ever manage to completely gas flood your engine,just crank the engine over,the plugs will fire thru it and it will start and clear out. With stock ignition you're pulling/cleaning/installing fresh plugs to get started. Others running variations of this system will attest to these traits.

ThirdPedalNirvana,regarding the condenser. Like the condenser in a points system that acts as a shock absorber to preserve contact faces on points,the condenser in a FB electrical system attached to the engine is there to dampen electrical noise before reaching audio components. Most people have heard alternator whine thru system speakers at some point. This is what condenser is there for,to filter/subdue that noise so it goes no further.

Pics of DFI,coils,modules,distributor,wires to illustrate
.

midnight mechanic

The "Flame thrower" is the igniter? I heard somewhere here that doing direct fire is a mistake. My car has OEM ignition. Those J109 igniters from the dealer were $700. And they look so frail compared to the GM ones.

So thirdpedalnirvana got the coil to barely fire by using a fully charged battery?

And what would I need a mechanic for? RX-7's are mostly simple to fix, except for this non firing coil.

GSLSEforme

Recall when i said your car will run without trailing spark,its only purpose is to clean up emissions. Fair amount of folks on here run leading only DFI and trigger fuel pump/tach off leading coil(s). The car will run on trailing if no leading but not have much power,but it will run.
In one of my most recent posts i mentioned having come across trailing ignition that was so weak it would not fire the coil but igniter would switch barely enough to trigger fuel pump and tach.
In your car,i can't know this as i don't have car in front of me,but strongly suspect your fuel pump feed circuit is modified from original and is not depending on trailing ignition to trigger and run. You would need to pursue investigating that to prove that out.
Don't worry about the voltage drop at this point,it's caused by age and resistance in wire harness and...the car ran with it before and will again. You can address that,but it will not help starting car at this point.

Did you ohm test coil wires to be certain they're good?
Reason car didn't flood when going down the mountain,engine being driven thru the drivetrain and downhill momentum is throttle was closed and only fuel from idle circuit was being pulled in thru the carburetor which at 3-4k rpm closed throttle is not that much. Now,when engine was not running but still rotating being driven by the drivetrain downhill,if you had throttle open 1/2,3/4/or floored the whole time you were coasting in gear with throttle closed,it would have pulled in enough fuel to flood the engine and fill the whole exhaust system with raw fuel because the engine turning is still compressing and vacuum is still present and carb draws fuel into engine just like when it is running-it doesn't know engine is not igniting fuel and making power. Again carb bowls being exactly full thru all this is suspicious.

You have no trailing ignition,leading is weak. Continue diagnostics. If you've verified all primary wiring in ignition system is good,move forward with removing/inspecting igniters and testing pickup coils. Somewhat easier to test pickups than igniters,so after looking at physical condition of igniters. To test operation of igniters you need to remove plugs to let starter spin engine fast enough to register anything on multimeter . This is not necessary so much with a lab scope.
To understand why multimeter is 2nd best tool to test pickups you have to understand the way the pickup coils generate signal/voltage and it is a very low voltage. Pickup coils are an AC generator(alternating current-like what comes into your house) and generate signal/voltage in a sine wave. Visualize a Capital letter S but laying on its side. This is somewhat representative of a representative of a sine wave.

As the engine turns the distributor shaft and the reluctor passes magnet in pickup coil it induces a voltage as it passes thru the area of the magnet. As the reluctor draws near the magnet,it begins to generate a signal and voltage,this point will be the back side of one end of the S. As reluctor comes closer to middle of magnet on pickup the signal increases and voltage ramps up. At the exact middle of the magnet,the current generated switches direction+/- ( middle of S)and begins building signal/voltage in the reverse that maxes when reluctor moves past the outside of magnet( backside of S). The oscillosope can capture the entirety of sine wave signal and full voltage generated in both directions. The multimeter(set on lo ac volts scale) will only pick up an average of the sine or @1/2 the voltage which at cranking speed-no plugs is .2-.3 of a volt. This is a very low current generator,at@5k rpm it is putting out a little over 2 volts. It is very hard to measure that low voltage with a meter but it can be done. Cap/rotor/wires off and out of way. Igniters off and test leads touch terminals from pickup in dist that contact terminals on back side of igniter. Doesn't matter which test lead touches which terminal,alternating current doesn't care. Have someone crank the car about 30-40 seconds while you lightly touch test leads to pickup contacts,that will let voltage stabilize so you can get the highest average voltage reading while watching meter.. Test both leading and trailing pickups they should and need to be identical results.

I think it very unlikely other than physical damage/cut,pinched wire(s),connector that these will be suspect. In 35 yrs,i may have replaced 3-4 of these and two were physically damaged,the others were failed windings around magnet-very low rate of failure.

If your tests reflect #s i've given here you need 2 igniters. I am certain trailing igniter is bad,no use in switching them around to see if car will start,waste of time.Also fairly confident leading igniter is partially shorted internally,working but not cleanly switching voltage up and down fully and not letting coil build a full charge to develop a good spark. This will be verified if you have swapped coil positions like suggested in previous prior post and both coils produced identical spark output. Strongly suggest if you haven't you do this AND ohmtest the coil wires so an incorrect diagnosis is not made and an igniter purchased that's not needed. Do these tests 1st before disassembling cap/rotor/wires/igniters for testing pickups. Post back results of all your findings