Ok, I searched but could not find a similiar situation.

Things to know first:
1985 13B GSL-SE
*) Battery is fully charged.
*) The starter is working I can hear it.
*) Motor spins but very, very weak.
*) It sounds like the coils are not firing hardly at all.
*) You can see the motor turning, sounds not as deep.
*) It's butt cold this morning.
*) It started up just fine on Sunday.

So I know the starter is working, the motor turns when cranking the ignition, battery is good to go, not sure what else to do. I have been thinking that the coils are old and need to be replaced but is that what I am suffering from now? It's like the motor is not getting enough spark...

Any help would be appreciated...

 

"motor spins but very, very weak" that won't help get you started. Get your battery load tested. Check your cables and terminals for corrosion and make sure the ground is clean and secured to the chassis and engine.
Check to see that you're getting spark to all the plugs when cranking it over. How long have you been running those plugs? Check your cap and rotor as well.
Some things to go over.

 

All good questions...

Battery was load tested, all is good.

Plugs are less than 2 months old, and less than 3K miles.

Cap and Rotor? No idea, going to order a new set then today.

Battery cables are fine, fairly new I'd say less than a year old. No corrosion. Ground is perfect.


Not sure what else to look for...

 

ok if you crank on a weak battery, its easy to flood the engine. try jump starting the car. the extra juice from a jump will entice the engine to turn faster, thus making the engine easier to start. you may want to pull the plugs to see if they're fouled before you go any farther.

 

The engine is cranking and there is plenty of power from the battery.

After an attempt at starting it, I smell gas under the hood. After every attempt. Like there is no fire. Is there not a test light I can use that tells me if it's getting the proper spark from the coils?

 

Compression good? Hate to go their, but the TII in my SE got hard to start and turned out the rear rotor was at 70psi

 

Did you try it with jumper cables? If it's spinning too slow could be starter. They love to go bad every couple years.

To check the spark I used to just look at a spark plug that was removed while turning over (don't know if that's the proper way nowdays
I am rusty).

 

I have a battery starter box and that thing will crank over a dozer. It's just not getting any spark. I am going to try that, pull the spark plug and give it a crank, to see if it's getting any spark at all. I just don't know at this time.... It's just weird...

 

Have you seen this thead?:
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...hreadid=162062

It's a great thread on no-start situations, it's in the FAQ.

Jon

 

Yes, thank you for that link. Went through and checked the spark, NOTHING...

The engine does crank, three great sounds, but the spark plug has no spark at all. I checked the dist cap and rotor and all looks ok. Seems my coils are out the door. Nothing wrong with the wires either...

Now I need to decide if I should go with the 2nd gen coil or go with the MSD setup.

It could also be the ignitors...

I appreciate everyone's help on this one.

 

i would look more into the ignitors that the coils. usually is the trailing ignitor that goes. you'd still have spark on the leading side though. did you check both?

 

You have fuel, so the trailing ignition is good. Make sure you have spark on the leading plugs. Remove the plugs, pull the engine fuse from under the dash, remove the dizzy cap, crank it over and deflood. Clean and dry your plugs, reinstall everything except the fuse, crank to start. As soon as it fires, install fuse.

 

I performed the deflooding steps. The spark plugs were covered and I did clean them but I also bought a new set. Tried it with older set and also with the new set and still no spark on any plug. Man, this is got me good.

Any other steps? Could it be the leading ignitor? Those suckers are expensive.

 

Check you engine fuse (in car, under dash). If that blows, your coils won't get power. Also, grab yourself a multimeter. You can get one at any autoparts store or radioshack or ebay. Great tool to have. If you have a multimeter or voltmeter, turn the key 'ON' without cranking. Check the voltage between each coil + post and ground:

- leading + to ground
- trailing + to ground

Both should show battery voltage. This will tell you if you are getting power to the coils. This is the most likely problem as it is unlikely to lose the trailing and leading ignitor at the same time.

EDIT: Let me add something here. There is a difference between the 12a and the GSL-SE when it comes to power to the coils. The 12A cars power the coils directly through the ignition switch. In this case, when you pull the engine fuse, as Trochoid mentioned, the fuel pump shuts off, but you still have spark to the plugs. However, on the GSL-SE, the coil power is fed through a relay. The trigger for the relay is through the ignition switch and through the 20A engine fuse. So in the GSL-SE, when you pull the engine fuse, you lose power to the coils and the fuel pump.

 

Also, here are some other options (if engine fuse is good):

- could be a bad fusible link. They are under the hood on the driver side strut tower. There are 5 on the GSL-SE: RETRACTOR, HEADLIGHT, MAIN, COMPUTER, INJECTORS. The INJECTORS fusible link powers the injectors and the coils/ignitors. Also, make sure the COMPUTER one is good too while you are at it.

- make sure the plugs to the ignitors (on the distributor) are plugged in nice and tight

When you checked spark, did you pull the plug, lay it on the chassis of the car, and crank to look for spark?

Kent

 

Update:

Still not starting.

However, we have spark to all four spark plugs. We tested each one individually and well, it's always best to do it not in pure sun light (Yea I know, )... So we put in spark plugs and this is after the flooding what-to-dos again and it still won't start. So, we have oil, I can see traces of it on the new spark plugs, we have spark, so that leaves fuel.

We tested all fuses under the dash to make sure they are functional. I hate to tow it in and have someone hammer away at it, but I'm starting to get really stumped here. How do we know if we have fuel? I seem to think I am smelling it after several attempts to start it, but it just won't go. The starter is doing it's job turning the motor, we have spark, ....

Any other suggestions?!?

 

If it's flooding, you should smell raw gas in the tailpipe. 30 seconds of cranking can fuel foul plugs to the point they will need cleaned again. This is why I have drawer full of spare plugs in the shop. Somedays I've had to lay out a dozen clean plugs and go through all of them before an engine would start.

Also, squrt some oil in the plug holes and rotate the engine by hand. When badly flooded, the apex seals lose thier ability to seal since the raw fuel has washed the oil film from the housings

 

thats the same thing that happened when i did my SE engine swap i took the rear bin out and unplugged the fuel pump when i was starting it ran it till it started to crank and fire then i plugged it back in and it runs like a champ now. that was the only way i could get fuel not flood the engine. try that see if it works. make sure it is not backed in to the garage though it will throw out lots of smoke and i mean lots.

some times the dark side can be very dark. keep with it though

 

First , wanted to say we have lift off! It's running!

Second, I want to thank you all for the great suggestions especially trochoid and bugman1973. After I deflooded the motor, put new plugs in, yada-yada, and ADDED THE OIL that was the key, we pushed started it and it ran! It took three push starts but it started up and smoked to burn out that oil that I put in there and next thing you know it, doing 115 down the road... I'm back in love with it, my kid is happy as well since now he get's to drive it again instead of my truck to and from school.

I can't express my appreciation enough to you guys. Based on all the feedback and suggestions I have a much clearer idea of what the hell from the battery to the starter to the ignitors...

This place is GREAT! I WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY XMAS AS WELL!

 

Glad it worked for you, and just in time for the season too. Have a Merry Christmas as well!

 

Glad you finally got it going. Once a rotary has flooded enough, all the lube has been washed off the housings and irons, reducing sealing capacity and compression. That can make it hard to start, even if everything else is up to snuff.