Ok.... first off I have searched on this and found different answers

just to make sure this is what I have came up w/ as what I think is right on a stock 85 GSL-SE. Please correct me if I'm wrong and tell me if I'm right

Front Rotor (closest to nose of car)
Top = T1
Bottom = L1

Rear Rotor (closest to cockpit)
Top = T2
Bottom = L2

And just to add....

Leading Coil = closest to the nose of the car
Trailing Coil = closest to the cockpit

NEXT

I was working on my car and took off the guard pan under the car to check the small leak on the oil cooler and then changed my dizzy cap and rotor, took off the plugs, and took out the plugs. I then decided to put them all back to normal so I could do the ATF treatment. I put it all back on and started her up... when I slam on the gas I hear a odd clicking type sound. It's loud almost like a knock but only when I slam on the gas and only a few times then it goes away. After I blow out the ATF (actually MMO) tonight I'm gonna do new dizzy, plugs, wires, oil, filter (air,oil,fuel) so it may just go away but I'm a little worried. I also took her out after I put the old setup back on and she didn't quite have the power she did before I started messing w/ her (hense the check on ignition stuff above).

1 more thing.... the Dizzy.... everyone here suggests I get it from mazda but I got my new one from pep boys. the cap look Identical to the one that was on the car. The rotor look ALMOST identical... (just a diff hold on top... stock had a round hole in the plastic and the new one has a rectangle type shape.

TIA Chris...

 

Make sure that the rotor and dist cap are on straight, i once took mine off and when i cranked the car it made the same sounds, and it was the rotor inside the cap hitting the electrodes in the cap....good luck,.,,,,.

 

On my gsl-se the trailing coil is closest to the front of the car and the leading coil is closest to the cockpit...

 

Good point.... thanks I'll listen closely and see if the noise is comming from there and probally pull and re-seat them just in case.


I knew I was shooting myself in the foot by not labeling them... *sigh* Hmmm.... are there any other ways to tell which is which?

 

I think that the trailing one should have the blue wire conector

 

Easy way to remember - it's backwards from what commonsense says.

Or the coils are positioned the same as the coil terminals in the cap. (trailing terminal is closest to front) That's probably why Mazda did it that way...

Or just get a white crayon and write big fat L and T on the coils.

 

My car has leading coil to the front. What gives?

 

You should have Trailing at the front. Maybe somebody botched your coils. The less crossed wires, the better.

I also believe Mazda put the Trailing coil at the front because it matches the cap better.

 

the easiest way to find the trailing / leading coils is to look at the - pole of the coil. In the stock setup trailing has 2 wires on the - pole, one's the trigger for the tach/ecu.

--matt

 

'81-85 only... '80 and earlier triggered the tach from the leading coil because the trailing coil doesn't fire full-time

made it a PITA to put the MSD in too... I couldn't wire it up directly to the pickup coil, because then i wouldn't have a tach unless I did a TON or rewiring, so my MSD is triggered by the ignitor per the MSD instructions. Seems to be working great although it's not elegant.

 

Thanks for all your info guys... I wasn't too sure last night but I looked up the wiring diagram in the Haynes manual and saw 2 wires come off the trailing coil. So I looked in the car and the coil to the front of the car was the trailing.

As for the knocking sound... it was the dust cover in the dizzy. I guess the circle isn't EXACTLY center so you have to rotate the dust cover till the rotor is center of the cover