my trailing plugs are not firing. i cant figure out why. both the coils are fine. i replaced what i thought was the trailing igniter but they still didnt fire. is the one facing the radiator the trailing?

if it is im stumped on what could be going wrong. the car has 176,000 miles on it so, does anyone have any suggestions?

 

I dont know off the top of my head, but an easy way i've found of diagnosing which wire, plug or ignitor isn't working is to simply use a timing gun and move the clip from wire to wire until you get to one where it doesn't flash anymore. That'll help you find where the problem is fairly quickly.

Also if you suspect its the ignitor you can swap them for testing purposes. But i'd make sure you dont have another problem further down the line before doing that, you dont want to blow out an ignitor as they're quite expensive.

 

Yes, the one facing the rad is the trailing one. Maybe bad connection in dizzy? Possibly shorted out wire from ignitor to coil?

 

it doesnt matter (80's are larger than the 81-85)

 

thanks


so its not the coils or the igniters. it also only gives me **** about half the time when its running. so i suspect that the trailing plugs will fire for around 5 minutes at a time, every once in a while. any more suggestions?

 

I would think you wouldn't even notice if the trailing plugs were firing or not.

 

Do you have a digital camera? You should go and pull your plugs and carefully document where they came from. Post some pics and list which hole they came out of. I suspect a too rich or too lean situation.

 

i know they arent firing because i took them out, and cranked the engine while the plugs were grounded. the leading plugs spark but the trailing dont.

new question, which is the leading and trailing ignition coil? is trailing the onw towards the back of the car?

 

just follow the wire back from dizzy to the coil. thats the easiest way.