A little about the car first. 6-port 13B with a Weber carb and an 81-85 distributor installed. Its wired as per the Mazdatrix diagram I found on the forum. I have doubled checked everything I can think of(part of the problem I think) and can't figure it out. I pulled a plug wire and put a spare spark plug in then turned the engine over. No spark at all. I understand the ignitors can be suspect on these but I couldn't find an easy way to check them. I did see the link on Jeff20B's page for testing coils and ignitors using a speaker but I can't set up something like that. I don't have a FSM for a 1st gen or a Haynes manual either. Any suggestions on testing the ignitors or anything else. I've been a 2nd gen person for 8 years so I'm new to the distributor setups.

Thanks,
FPrep'd

 

You're probably not getting a good enough ground for the spark plug to work properly. Try gripping the hex part of the spark plug with a vice grip and hooking an aligator clip from it to a good ground. If you still don't see a spark, try cranking the engine on a cloudy day or at night. Don't forget to check for voltage on all the terminals of the coils and ignitors (+, -, B, C).

Turning the distributor shaft by hand does the same thing the speaker does. This is only convinient though if the distributor is not on the engine because it needs to be rotated kinda quickly.

 

A question. Did your distributor cap come in that color? Or did you paint it?

 

I haven't seen the Mazdatrix diagram, but here is a scan of the distributor wiring from the FSM for an '84 13B in case it helps you to double check the wiring.

The next post is a scan of the factory method for checking igniters. You need only a bulb, small jumpers and a switch. I haven't had to try it, but it's simple enough.

John.

 

 

Some people have said that the light bulb test method didn't work for them, even though the ignitor still worked. I've personally never used a light bulb to test an ignitor, so I can't really comment on its effectiveness.

Speaking of which, I've got two untested ignitors off a GSL-SE dizzy that was left out in the rain. There was lots of corrosion on the backs of the ignitors and inside the dizzy. All ignitors are sealed so I hope they're ok inside. I'm going to use a speaker and an uninstalled distributor to see which way works better (which way makes bigger sparks). Just gotta find time during an engine swap today.

 

Didn't paint it. Came in that color. A friend donated the complete distributor for the FP car. I'm buying another distributor cap and rotor today.

 

Thanks FJ. If my new cap and rotor doesn't do the trick I'll use that to test the ingitors.

 

I had the friend that wired the car on the phone last night helping me test everything. I was using a test light and it appeared to have voltage on the coils and ignitors. He is going to pull his car(www.rotarymiata.com) into his garage tonight and get me on the phone so we can do some comparisons. It may prove to be something simple and that would be nice.

 

I think I'd like a gray cap just to be different. Anyway, I hope it works out. Good luck.

 

Latest update. It still isin't running. Changed the cap and rotor(Correct black cap now). Tested all the wiring. Everything has power where its suppost to. There is just no spark getting to the plugs. I never did get around to checking the ignitors. What are the chances of both ignitors being bad?

 

50%, unless there was a voltage spike or something which killed 'em both.