1st Generation Specific (1979-1985) 1979-1985 Discussion including performance modifications and technical support sections

Coils and ignitors, what goes where?

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Old Jul 3, 2003 | 09:50 PM
  #1  
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As I get more and more frustrated with my SE's revving(or lack there of) problem, I'm looking into all the options that would be causing it. When I put the new motor in, and was plugging everything back in, I couldn't recall exactly which coil was for leading and trailing, and which ignitor was for leading and trailer. I put them how I thought they were, and we got the car running, but it will not rev past a certain rpm, the more load on the car, the lower it gets.....

So today, I remembered this, and switched the ignitor plugs around, and the car behaved exactly the same as before. I don't understand how it can behave the same both ways, when one ignitor is for leading, the other trailing, weird....

I also want to make sure i have the coils going to the right places. Can anyone verify which is which on my SE? I couldn't find any good info in searches on this. I really need to get this problem solved. The car is hard to start, and will not rev any higer than 5500rpms in neutral, and as load increases in gear, lower and lower, sometimes as low as 2000rpms, it will cut out and die, let off the gas,and it comes back.

So if someone could verify these coil and ignitor positions, then I can rule this out as an issue, hopefully.
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 12:15 AM
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jsut a thought, have you checked your oil injectors, made sure they arn't flooding the engine. as a test disconnect the linkage and push it downthen try revving your engine. if that works then you have a problem there.
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 07:17 AM
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Wouldn't it smoke though?
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 08:02 AM
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The ignitor closest to the front of the car is the leading ignitor. The coil closest to the front of the car is the trailing coil. Hope this helps, good luck!

--Bob
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 08:34 AM
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Ok, but which plug that comes out the harness goes to the proper ignitor. It's easy on the coils, when you know which coil is which, just to attach them to the L and T on the ditsy, but the ignitor plugs don't specify.

BTW, the coils were backwards, so I switched them, and it wouldn't start at all....it jumped and sputtered a little bit, but wouldn't start.

How could the car have run with the coils backwards? and it had power too, until it would cut out.
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 08:55 AM
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There are color plugs on the wiring harness, the blue goes to trailing, white goes to leading.
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 04:11 PM
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Ok, I think I'm closing in the problem. Tell me if this makes sense.

Now that I know where all the plugs go, I put them all in their correct positions. I cranked the car, and got nothing at all from it this time, not even a sputter. At the same time, I noticed I had no tach.....

Now if i recall correctly, the tach is run off of the trailing igniter. Right? So if I now have no tach, could the igniter be the source of all these problems? I switched the plugs so that the plug for the trailing ignitor was running off the leading ignitor, and I had a tach. So if I had both the coil wires and the ignitor wires backwards, the car would run correct, but it would fire the trailing plugs as if they were the leading, enough to run the car yes, but as the rpms got up, it wouldn't keep up. Does this make sense.

So my next step this evening, is to swap the positions of the ignitors and see what that does.

Luckily, my local yard has another ditsy in there, and I'm going to grab it early this week, and then I'll have two more ingitors, I see waht Mazdatrix wants, and even for the useds ones, damn.

Anyone have any suggestions?
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Old Jul 4, 2003 | 05:30 PM
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Nevermind about the tach thing, I found a connection that came apart....

The car still wont' start now that I have everything in the right place.

Now what?
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Old Jul 5, 2003 | 07:46 AM
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bump
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Old Jul 5, 2003 | 08:38 AM
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It sounds like your spark plug wires are switched. Also do you have spark from both coils?
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Old Jul 5, 2003 | 08:46 AM
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The wires are in the correct places. I got eveything where it's supposed to go now.

How do you go about checking the coils?
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Old Jul 5, 2003 | 08:56 PM
  #12  
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bump


new cap and rotor go in tomorrow, wires on Monday.
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 11:12 AM
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Originally posted by thecause17
The wires are in the correct places. I got eveything where it's supposed to go now.

How do you go about checking the coils?
Just pull the wires off the coils (on the fender) and crank the car. You should get sparking jumping from both coils.
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 02:45 PM
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I got the car started today. It was flooded.


Even with everything on the correct places, it's doing the exact same thing as before. The colder the engine is, the more freely it revs. As it warms up, it cuts out, and the more gas you try to give it, the lower it cuts out. I don't think this is a fuel related problem anymore. But I also think everything is workong properly. The only tune up item I have left to replace is the wires, and they're ordered, should have them tomorrow.

The car is still hard to start, must be started with the foot on the gas slightly, and it will not rev high as it gets warm.....

I'm,not sure what else to do. Car has spark, car gets fuel...
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 09:48 PM
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bump
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 09:55 PM
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I swapped the way my plugs were wired this weekend and there was a distinct difference in the performance of the engine =)

Are you sure your plugs are wired correctly? I thought mine were! What did you base the wiring off of?
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 09:59 PM
  #17  
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what do you mean?


I base the wiring of my plugs off the fact that the ditsy,a and the engine, both are labeled what goes where......what are you talking about?
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 10:06 PM
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My Haynes manual shows a wiring configuration between the dizzy and the engine that I would not expect.... (Of course, I can't find a clear picture on the Mazda shop manual)

That is, I would expect some degree of symmetry while in fact there is none.. (?)
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Old Jul 6, 2003 | 10:34 PM
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trailings are on top, T1 and L1 are on the front rotor, and T2 and L2 ore on the rear rotor, and it is marked on the cap also... Not that easy to screw up

But yea, just another bump. The car has trouble starting, you need to give it just a touch of throttle, or it wont start. Once it gets started, you cant just "floor" the gas pedal, or it will cut out and die. But if you gradually give it gas it will rev, but not above maybe 5k, and it gets worse as the car warms up.... Im pretty stumped myself. Any ideas?
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Old Jul 7, 2003 | 07:14 AM
  #20  
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Anyone?
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