I checked the ignitor(ghetto way, don't ask ) and found that the front of the two(mounted on the fender well) is not working. Took it off and it sounds like its full of water????? Took the other one off just to see if it did the same and it sounded and felt solid. Is there a way for the ignitor to get full of water or something(not sure how it works, maybe its suposed to have some kind of fluid in it?)? Is the front one the one that controls the tach?

 

What model car do you have? The only first gen. cars that had ignitors on the fender was the 80 model although never having owned one of the SEs I am not sure where the ignitors on those are located. You are not talking about the coils are you?

 

Ok i'm kinda new to the whole 1st gen thing(I'm used to EFI not carb'd) there is a distributor near the middle of the top of the motor. there is a trailing plug wire going to the front one on the fender well, and the other wire from the other one(towards the back, but right behing the first one) is going to the middle of the distributor..... the front one isn't getting a spark. I went to the junkyard and bought one just like 30 minutes ago and still the same thing.. I switched them so I know its good b/c the car started with each one hooked up in the leading position.

I know this makes no sense but someone must understand what I'm talking about........

 

that isn't an igniter..it's a coil. and it's fill with oil.

the igniters are located on the distributer itself.

 

I was driving home from work today and the tach started to work, but no change in how it was running. Would it still be running this good(can chirp third gear) even if it had no trailing spark???

 

when the tach isn't working, neither is your trailing spark, so when the tach is working it should run great...
depending on how your timing is it should still run ok with just the leading as the leading plug is burning the majority of the gas, but you should notice a difference when the trailing isn't firing. Replace trailing, or just swap the ignitors and see if it makes a difference.

There are two of these ignitors on the side of the distributor... good luck

 

without the trailing, it will fowl the plugs pretty quickly because of how rich it's running.

but hey..you'll be able to shoot some pretty big flames

 

I know what you're talking about- my ignitors work, but no matter which one I put in the trailing spot, I don't get spark to the trailing plugs. I concluded it is the coil, but haven't replaced that yet.

 

The reason why Mazda hooked the tach to the trailing coil is because you'd never feel a difference in engine power output if trailing were to conk-out on you. It's a visual reminder I supose.

Anyway, I gutted a dead ignitor that just so happened to have some water in it. The water corroded thin wires from the terminals down to the circuit bored under the silicone-like sealant. I'm not sure how it got in there, so I simply wired the S and G terminals to the B and C terminals to act as an electical signal pass-through for DLIDFIS so I'll never have to cut any pickup wires.

 

Yeah I replaced the bad ignitor and still no go, so I guess I'll just have to find a new coil.....

Thats the only thing I havent checked, but the trailing is not getting a spark at all(checked it with a timing light)


Is this normal??? I would think that the leading would go out first since that is pushing more power(or controling more).....

 

Hi,

I have the same problem today. My car runs fine, but the Tach stopped working this morning. I will be checking my trailing plugs today. Is it the same with FCs? I have a 1990 vert.

Also I got a Check engine light on the center dash. It happens right after the tach stops working. When I stop the car and restart it. The tach works for a few minutes.

 

You should use a spark checker to test for spark to make sure that this is the case. A timing light isnt designed to test for spark.


*EDIT* Sorry for brining this back from the dead, didnt see the original posting date.

 

Wow, four years and about 2 rx7's later......