Im gettin nothin comin from the trailing plugs that combined with a bad cat on the car im putting out over 1200 HC's and about 30% o2 haha dont ride behind me you're likely to get high or just passout :P.. so anyways what do I need to do about the trailing plugs? i know the plugs, wires and ignitor are good.. which means theres something wrong in the dist. somewhere so what should I be looking for and how do i test?

 

If you have a timing light you could hook it up to the trailing coil wire, that way you could nail down whether its the dizzy, or the coil itself.

Brian

 

Its the dizzy for sure... the coil seems to be working fine....

 

As far as troubleshooting the dizzy goes, I'm afraid I can't help. But if we keep this thread near the top long enough, someone that knows what to do will see it eventually.

Brian

 

check the gap on the inductor armature in the dizzy

 

I would have said trailing ignitor (does your tach work and is the car in the 81-85 range) but you state the trailing coil fires fine. You do know the trailing coil is the front coil right? Good luck!

 

Huh? In english with pictures please! :-/

 

hmmm.. I dunno.. I'll go check the coils again maybe I have them all screwed up and back asswards...

 

Ok so its the leading coil that doesn't work (closest to the strut tower) and I can't figure out why... I replaced it with a new one and im not getting spark on the wire from the coil to the dizzy... any one????

 

Have you checked both ignitors? Your original post only states that you know the trailing ignitor is good. Or did you have the ignitor's confused too? Make sure they are both good.

As far as the "gap on the inductor armature in the dizzy" is concerned. Check the contacts in the cap, and the "blades" on the rotor for excessive wear, or corrosion buildup.

Brian

 

I dont know anymore... this car hates me! In its current state the trailing plugs will fire... if I swap the ignitors neither one will fire so I dont freakin know! stupid car! All I know is that it used to start before I tried to fix the trailing plugs and now the stupid thing wont start at all! grrrr

 

this is, i think what it looks like right now....

 

How do the contacts on the cap & rotor look?

 

contacts look almost new.... I swapped out one of the ignitors and now I have spark at all 4 plugs but the car still wont start.... I think theres something up with the timing, the dizzy has been out and in quite a few times over the last week and so im sure thats all screwed up by now.. how do I get the timing correct?

 

1. Make sure the timing mark on the pulley is lined up with the pin on the front housing.

2. Take out the dizzy. You can actually do this before step 1 if you want to.

3. Look at the shaft of the dizzy, down just above the gear. There is a black dot on it. Line that up with the mark(I think it looks like an arrowpointing toward the dot if I remember right) that is on the shaft housing.

4. Before re-inserting the dizzy, align it such that the adjustment bolt will be as close to center as possible.

5. Drop it in. The shaft will probably rotate a little bit, don't worry about that.

At this point it should be very close to timed for TDC.

Brian

 

hmmm.. i tried that like 5 times and the car doesnt start.. if I turn the dizzy all the way to the right after doing that but the timing is still like 25 degreese off.... :-/

 

Can you clearly see both timing marks on the puley? I believe the Yellow should be leading, and the Red should be trailing. Whichever one is one the driver's side is leading, I know that.

Have you changed the vacuum advances at all? Could this be what has the timing messed up?

Did you double check the coil wire routing? Make sure the Leading coil wire from the dizzy goes to the rear coil, and Trailing goes to the front one?

Just throwin out ideas man. Let us know.

Brian

 

i am having the exact same problem! If you figure it out maybe I'll get my 2.5 year project running again...

 

Im gonna check all the wires and such tomorrow... I figured my neighbors have heard enough of me trying to start my engine for the night... Its entirely possible that I was just being retarded and had the light connected to the wrong spark plug or something... :-/

 

its in the haynes manuel

looks like you have it fixed anyways

are you plugs fouled
that'll keep it from starting

 

May have flooded it by now trying to start it so many times Remember, leading plugs are the bottom plugs.

I did my timing a slightly different way but it should still get you the same results.

1. Rotate main pulley so that first mark is aligned with the pin. This places engine at TDC.

2. Take cap off of dizzy and also pull the dizzy out enough to disengage it.

3. Rotate plastic rotor until the arrow on it points to the L1 position that is on the cap.

4. Insert dizzy back into engine. Plastic rotor may go off a little, that is ok.

5. Next take off plastic rotor and metal dust cap. Adjust the dizzy by hand to get one of the points on the four point star to be directly in front of the leading ignitor pick-up.

6. Tighten adjustment bolt. Re-assemble dizzy.

 

woohoo.. finally got it.. i sorta took the dizzy out and guessed (ok so an educated guess) where the gear was supposed to line up and blam I was at exactly 0 when I started it up! now.. ive not a clue what to do with the trailing.. I think the haynes manual guy was smoking crack when he wrote that part cuz when I move the vaccume thing he says to move it changes the leading ignition.. so whats the deal with the trailing?