Does this sound like a bad ignitor?
 

I was setting my timing last night and it would appear that my leading ignitor took a crap in the middle of the procedure. Let me describe what happened, and then you guys tell me if you think it is a bad ignitor or not. I did the 2GCDFIS conversion on this car, but until last night it was working perfectly, so I think that the problem is unrelated to the 2GCDFIS swap.

To start with I hooked my timing light up to the leading plug on the front rotor. The timing light was working great, nice strong flashes, which I assume means I'm getting a good spark on the leading plugs. I lined up the yellow mark with the indicator pin, and tightened down the adjuster bolt. Everything looked good. I made a few carburetor adjustments and thought that I would go back and check the timing one last time, just to be sure.

I hooked the timing light back up to the leading plug on the front rotor. It was flashing intermittently, almost like there was a short or something. When the timing light did flash it was showing the red mark on the pulley instead of the yellow one. I checked all my connections, thinking that my timing light was screwing up, even though it's practically new. I took off all the timing light connections, and put them all back on, just to be sure. Same thing happened.

To make sure that my timing light wasn't causing the problems I hooked up to the trailing plugs. Nice strong steady flashes on the trailing plugs. At this point I was baffled so I went back to the leading plugs one last time. I got a couple of random stray flashes from the timing light and then it stopped totally. I can't get the timing light to flash on either of my leading plugs now. It still works great on the trailing plugs.

So have I blown out a leading ignitor? Or do you guys think that my 2nd gen coil pack died?

The funny thing was, I thought that if you lost the leading plugs the engine would run terribly. It is fairly smooth still and revs nicely. The idle is kinda choppy, but for the most part I don't think I would've noticed a real difference otherwise. Good thing that I was checking the timing I guess.

Thoughts fellas?

Jamie

You could try unplugging the leading igniter, if this doesn't make any difference in the idle or the timing light that is probably the problem. The 12A will run pretty well on just one igniter, whether leading or trailing, the engine seems to be pretty immune to timing problems.

Another suggestion, if you keep both of your stock coils after installing the 2GDFI and throw the extra coil lead in your storage bin, you can always switch back to the stock ignition to rule out problems with the 2GDFI installation. I have it set up this way and it takes about 15 seconds to switch back and forth.

Good luck!

Ray

Both great tips Ray. I will give one or both of those a try. I also thought about swapping the leading and trailing ignitors on the distributor body to see if the problem jumps from the leading plugs to the trailing plugs.

Another quick check is to pull a leading plug, connect it to its wire and ground it on the engine. You should see a good steady spark across the gap when you turn it over. This is what you timing light should be telling you, but it rules out any problem with the light or hook up.

It's possible the ignitor or coil died. Also possible that the timing light just doesn't like the 2nd gen coil. Recently, I was trying to check the timing on an FC, and the timing light would not work, at all. Hooked it up to my car, it worked fine. Hooked it back up on the FC, and nothing. It wouldn't flash on either the leader or trailing on the FC, and the dern thing was running. I STILL don't understand that one......

Yeah my timing light doesn't work very well either with the 2nd gen coils either, weird. That's why it's worth double checking by watching the spark directly.

I've had a hard time with timing lights ever since I upgraded to larger than stock wires. I'm wondering if they have better shielding on them or something.

Maybe this might help. Good Luck.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...t=timing+light

Also have had similar due to fouled plugs.

Learner, you think that I may just be getting interference from the other plug wires? My plugs may be fouled too, I'll check that.

I had the same problem.. so I switched out the ignitors. turns out it was the pickups inside the ditsy... got new pickups, and the problem is solved... now i just need to figure out how to keep it running... :(

Easiest way to tell if the leading is dead is take the car out for a drive. If it's way down on power, then there's a fault somewhere in the leading ignition side. If the power is about the same and still good, it's the timing light.