Or, maybe it's not weird, and maybe I just don't fully understand what I'm doing.

Broke out the brand spanky new timing light today, thought I'd try to take a stab at seeing what's going on with my rough-idling, no-power-having 82 GSL.

Connecting the test lead to the front leading plug didn't register either the red OR the yellow timing marks. In fact, I couldn't see them anywhere on the pulley. This led me to initially think the timing was just way off, causing the idle to suck. Then I thought I'd try the wires for the other rotor. Those look bang on perfect. Leading wire 2 is right on the red, and trailing wire 2 is right on the yellow (or vice versa, whichever way the plaque under the hood says it's supposed to go). Spark is getting through the wire (steady blinking, no irregularity at all) on all wires, it just appears that the ones for the front rotor aren't necessarily hitting at the right time.

How could that be? Or is the timing just so far out of whack that the second rotor is lighting up when the front one should be? Would the car run at all if the wires were just connected up wrong/ crossed?

Any ideas and/or pointers? I am starting to think that I might be running on one rotor at this point (I am new to RX7's and just bought this one a few weeks ago), and the proposition of jerking the motor out to rebuild it isn't really what I want to get into right now, though that might make the planned transmission swap a bit easier...

Idles at about 1200 rpm right now, hesitates pretty bad off idle if you don't feather the gas real easy, and sounds like a chainsaw since I don't have an exhaust on it yet.

thanks in advance-
Jake

 

u might want to check to see if the wires are right like L1 should be on top in the front housing and L2 should be top rear same for the T1 and T2

 

The most probable explanation is that the e-shaft pulley has been installed 180* out. The engine will run exactly the same this way except it will be timed off the rear rotor.

 

I thought the trailing plugs were on top?

I had considered that the e-shaft might be in backwards, as it were. I will mess with it some more one night this week and see what happens.

 

Yes the trailing plugs are the top ones.

It would be a bit of a worry if the e-shaft was installed backwards.

 

OK, not backwards, then, upside down.

So at this point I have basically eliminated the timing being off as a reason for weird idle/ crappy driveability. Next step, new plugs, check carb and play with mixtures and idle speed.

 

Trailing-top, Leading-lower. And yes you can put the eshaft in backwards, oops, but not upside down. The pulley can be clocked in 4 different positions however. Match up the timing mark and pin by hand, pull the cap and check the orientation of the rotor.

 

When you try and accerate does the car just bogg down and try to stall or stall? If so it is most likly the fuel filter as a culprate.

 

Backwards, upside down, what have you. In any case it's timing out perfect on the back rotor instead of the front, however it got there. : shrug :

Thanks for the fuel filter pointer- I have been meaning to look into that for a while now, maybe now that I know the timing is somewhat close to right, I will do that next.

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

 

right my bad the trailing is on top sry about that typed it in wrong

 

fuel filter would not cause rough idle. Look for vacuum leak(s). Also, check the accel pump in the carb.

 

Hmm? I'm having the same problem too. I can adjust timing on one of the leads but not the other. Shows nothing on the pulley. I then attempted the trailing sides and it sits on the lead yellow mark. I tried to adjust it by moving the part with the 2 screws in and out and it doesn't adjust. Wonder if the pulley is wrong on mine also. Or it could be that we are both newbies

I attempted to adjust the leading side that was adjustable to 24* advanced, and it ended up with the distributor turned all the way clockwise. The car ran and sounded like crap and smoked. I then put it back to where it was. I searched for 5 hours on here on timing topics (tons of info) and everything is how it's suppose to be. Got me stumped.

How can something as easy as setting timing be so damn dificult on these cars.

 

Vacuum leaks, I will have to start looking. I don't know what's still on there that's vacuum operated, as the rats nest was gone off this thing when I got it. Maybe something that was supposed to be plugged wasn't totally sealed up, who knows. I had a 78 Buick () when I was a kid that did the same thing, died off idle, etc. Finally found a vacuum leak somewhere in/on the carb and plugged it and it did fine after.

 

Check the vacuum advance on the distributor....

 

What am I looking for?

 

Just wanted to clarify for you; they are talking about the pulley on the front of the Eshaft being installed wrong, not the Eshaft itself. Just take the four bolts out of the pulley, rotate it 180 degrees, and bolt it up again. Then your timing marks should be dead on again...