Nick-7

I have an 84 se and it has been sputtering off and on lately. Sometimes it will just sputter a little at 6k, and other times it will sputter so badly at 3.5k that I cannot go any higher in rpm. I was on the highway today and everytime I pushed the throttle to the point the secondary butterflies would open, it would sputter real bad and sound like it was going to die.

This problem is not persistan at all. Sometimes I can drive and it will run perfectly fine. Also my tach will bounce when the headlights or parking lights are one and when the revs are lower than 2k. It has never bounced when over 2k. As for the tach bouncing I have not had time to do a search, I just included the info incase it could be linked to the sputtering problem.

I had this same problem a few weeks before I got out for Christmas break and it went away for a while.
Things checked and done

1 plugs are (ok)
2 plug wires are (good)
3 rotor is (ok)
4 dizzy cap (ok)
5 igniters are good (questioning trailings connection)
6 everything is connected right
7 no plug wires are crossed over
8 fuel filter is (good)
9 fuel pump has yet to be checked

LongDuck

Your tach bouncing around has me wondering if you have an electrical problem, namely the alternator or battery system. The tach signal is fed from the trailing coil (the one toward the front), so check the connection there to see if it has a good connection. If that fixes the tach problem, but the car still 'sputters', look further.

When I had a problem with my 84SE losing power (like, more than half), I found it to be bad fuel injector wiring harnesses that were cutting off fuel flow to the rear rotor - at idle, at speed, you name it. I found this out by pulling over when it 'sputtered' (running on one rotor, only), and then moving the wiring harness around until it kicked back to normal life. Removed the upper intake and spliced in new injector pigtails for $15 at Autozone (Borg-Warner). This may be a simple fix if you can move the wiring harness around (right behind the water pump, under the alternator) and get it to replicate the 'sputtering'.

The other cause may be the ignition system, so you might try moving the connectors around on the trailing ignitor (mounted to the distributor). If you can get it to act up, it may be one of the ignitors is not working correctly. Beyond that, might try replacing the trailing coil and see if that helps.

Rotary engines use trailing ignition to improve fuel economy through more efficient combustion, the engine will run just fine without trailing ignition, but will not run at all without leading ignition. Maybe try swapping your leading and trailing ignitors?

Good luck, report back,