DerrickS

OK. so I've been searching around a lot, and I have a few ideas of places to look and things to test, but this has just become a problem for me today so I wanted some ideas.

Here's the run down. Car runs great when it starts up, idles nice, and pulls strong.

Today I drive it to work, and when I leave for lunch, it won't crank up. What I mean by that is that I can crank (tach needle bounces) and then it fires, but as soon I let off the starter, the tach needle hits the floor and the engine quits spinning. If I hold the gas to floor, the engine will spin a couple extra revolutions, but it's not under power. It's not fooding, because I've flooded it a couple of times, and you know when that happens and it catches finally, there's all kinds of smoke out the pipe. Not the case here. When it runs, it's great, tach reads fine, no stumbles.

To me it seems like an electrical thing. I've been able to plug and unplug the trailing igniter and make it fire so I think maybe that's the problem, but wouldn't it cut out when driving around if that was the case??? It's almost like the ignition quits as soon as the starter is disengaged. Also, this happens hot or cold...

I know nothing about the condition of the plugs, cap, and wires except that they don't appear to be old. I've not had the car for even a year yet, so I'm still inspecting things with it.

I got it to fire and drove it home, and it was fine. Get back in it and no fire. finally fiddled with the igniter and blue connector on the trailing coil, and it fired. Ran fine, got back to work, shut it off and tried again. First try just falls flat, then fired on second try. I will also say that it has done this off and on since I've had it, but it always fires the second or third time, and is strong as hell when it does. Like an on/off switch.....

Suggestions? because I read about twenty threads regarding flooding and fuel and hot starts and cold starts, but none of those pertained to me...

Thanks!

DerrickS

Also, forgot to ask.... Since I suspect an igniter, and I've seen where you can swap them out to test, is it possible to swap the cable harness connectors, or do you need to physically move them from the side of the distributer? They are just bolted there, right?

I did move the harness connector from the trailing igniter to the leading igniter and left the other one un plugged, and that did not help my situation...

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Sounds more to me like the "run" position of your ignition switch is having a problem keeping the ignition powered, based on your description.

Trailing ignitor itself wouldn't stop the engine from running. Failed trailing hardly affects operation at all on an SA, for example - - though on FB's the trailing iggy sig is used to enable the fuel pump. Loss of the fuel pump won't cause an immediate stop, though... carb bowls take a few seconds to run dry, minimum.

DerrickS

I had that thought this morning myself. Your right, the trailing would kill the pump, but it probably would run for just a few more seconds. No carb bowls here - FI (FTW) :-)

Also, It kept happening throughout the day yesterday, and again I tried to switch over the igniters, and it did not help, so I'm ruling those out right now.

Anybody ever take apart an ignition switch??

t_g_farrell

iTrader: (1)

I second the ignition switch idea. I think I had that with my car many years ago. Just
depends how much usage they get. Usually its just the switch and pigtail that needs
to be changed but sometimes a bad key cylinder can also be a problem.

Its easy to get at it. Just pull the steering wheel covers off and its right there on the
left side of the wheel, just aft of the wiper/signal multiswitch. It's attached to the
key cylinder by some screws and has a harness that connects further down the
shaft of the steering wheel. Pull it out and use an ohm meter to see how its acting.
Sometimes a good cleaning will fix it up. I think you can still get them new from
mazdatrix or black dragon.

DerrickS

Just wanted to update this thread.
I was able to pull the switch out. After removing the covers, the switch is there to get at. I also had to remove the small cover portion that blows air at your crotch to really get the wires free. The electrical part of the switch is held to the key cylinder with one screw. The biggest issue I had was after trying to free the harness. There is a cheap plastic (white rectangular) switch on the back side of the key cylinder facing the firewall. You can't really see it, but I ended up pulling the wires completely out of the the thing. This switch is held to the key lock by these little one way press on washers that you have to pry off carefully or they will be trashed. The function of the this little switch is to engage the key buzzer. I actually ended up just leaving it out - I hate that buzzer.
I took the main part of the ignition switch apart by unsnapping it carefully. The plastic on mine was very brittle. Once apart, it was easy to see that the switch needed a good cleaning. I took picture of it so I could put it back together after taking it apart, and then went to town with the contact cleaner and a metal brush. I got it all bright again, cleaning both sides of the the copper rings since they make contact on the front and the back. I put it back together and added a bunch of new dielectric grease. Put it back in and fired it up. So far so good. It seems to start much stronger now and so far has not done the cutting out thing.
I recommend doing this if you haven't done it yet. After this long, it probably needs it....