very recently i replaced the belts in my 83 RX... before i did... things seemed to be working fine... not so much now... i have the rats nest removed... so i replaced the A/C and the Alternator belts... i dont know what i did, but i must have knocked sumthin cuz now i have a rough idle... and im pretty sure im not getting ignition in the leading coil... (i checked for vaccum leaks in the carb to be sure... but no leaks... and rather than the engine revvin slightly when i spray directly down the carb... i just downs down and sometime stalls... i used a timing light... thinking that the timing might be off... and i have found that the Leading plugs are not firing... the coils are fine... there is fire from both coils to the dizzy but no fire from the two leading wires out to the plugs... this is all i kno... and i am STUMPED...

 

Check the little black boxes on the side of the distributor. These are the ignitors (they fire the coils). The one on the front is the leading, the one by the alternator is the trailing. You probably just knocked loose the connector to the leading ignitor (one on the front). Check it out and report back.

Kent

 

i checked the ignitors.. and the connections appear to be fine and intact... still having problems...

 

You said that you have spark to the dizzy, but not to the plugs? If this is the case, the coil and ignitor are fine. It would have to be a bad dizzy cap, rotor, or both wires.

Pull off the coil wire (one that goes from the coil to the dizzy, put it near the strut tower. Crank and look for spark. If it has spark, put it back in and do the same thing with one of the leading spark plug wires (maybe the timing light isn't picking up the signal). If you have spark going into the dizzy but none coming out, pull off the cap and check the rotor/cap. If they haven't been replaced in a long time, now would be a good time to go ahead and replace both of them.

Kent

 

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alright, sorry for all of the confusion. I checked things over and there is definitly no spark from the leading coil... i tried a different wire but still no spark... i also swapped in a different coil... and that one did not work either...

(the coils, wires, cap, and rotor are all new)

 

It is probably a bad leading ignitor, then. I am not sure about the '83, does the fuel pump run when the key is turned to 'on' or does the engine have to be running? I know how it is on the '82 and earlier and '84 and later, just not sure about the '83. I ask because if it runs with the key on (like the '82 and earlier), you can just switch the ignitors for now. You would then have leading, but no trailing.

On the later cars ('84 and later for sure), there needs to be a signal from the trailing coil to keep the fuel pump running. In this case, you couldn't swap because then the fuel pump wouldn't work.

Try to get a pair of replacement ignitors. That way you will have a spare if one dies in the future. Try to get used ones. New are very expensive.

The signal that you were picking up on the timing light was probably from the trailing ignition.

 

well ill swap the ignitors tomorrow and see if that is the case... yes the fuel pump runs when the key is in the on position... either way... thankyou for you help... lets hope we've found the problem...

 

hey addict ^ if your right about the 84' and 85's needs power to the ignitors to make the fuel pump work you might have solved my friends problem.. his car has been down for awhile and he replaced the fuel pump and all the lines thinking there was a clog but the pump isnt getting any fuel to the carb...i will tell him to check his ignitors and maybe him and i can swap mine onto his car to see if it will run then

 

That should take care of it. The only other possiblity would be wiring or the coil. It is rare for the coil to fail, so either something came unplugged or shorting or the ignitor is shot. Let us know if that takes care of the problem.

Yep, check it out (the trailing one). That could be the problem if the pump is not running at all. The other possibility is that the fuel pump relay is bad. Search. There is a thread on how to bypass the relay. It is basically like using the short fuel connector the SE has so that the pump will run whenever the key is on.

Good luck, guys.

Kent