wont idle
 

sorry i am no good at searching ( have looked for close to an hour),
got my car to crankover, got new cap and rotor,
i have to give the car gas to get it to start up, and then if i let off it dies ( granted i only did this 3or 4 times for fear of breaking something), when it is running it sounds kinda like a lawn mower ( i seriously dont know what these cars are supposed to sound like, ive only heard an FC run) and had the greyish blue smoke goin on. The rats nest was removed very sloppilly, or just ripped out, do i need these vacum hoses put back on, or is that fine.
im just seeking advice befor i proceed to destroy the car ive been putting back together for 2 months,im frazzled and have to go back to school so i cant try anymore right now

thanks

Please don't destroy it, you'll be thankful! How old is the fuel in the tank? You mentioned you changed cap and rotor, what about the spark plugs (use NGK) How long has the car been sitting? Fuel filter? By the way FBs sound pretty good, but they sound like lawn mowers when they have an exhaust leak up front (trust me I know!). What year is your car?

My guess is that you're running on only one rotor. The reasns could be many, but I'd look into making sure that each plug is getting spark, and that the plug wires are on right. Blue smoke is somewhat common on start-up, and should go away within a minuit or so of starting the car. If not, than the oil control seals are bad, and the engine will need to be torn down to fix the blue smoke problem.

If the engine as a 12A, than the rats nest can be removed, but check for vacuum leaks. Look up the procedure for rats nest removal and check to make sure the previous owner didn't leave anything off, or forget to do parts of it.

Look up Pratch's how-to for the rat's nest removal. I used it on mine and it worked like a charm afterwards.

Here are a couple of different things:

Is your tach working? If not, could be your rear ignitor is bad and needs to be replaced.

Check your spark as mentioned already to make sure you're getting spark on both rotors.

Check your timing. I had mine 180 out and it ran really rough and backfired quite a bit. Once I figured that out, the car has driven like a dream since.

If you pull the choke to close it, does the car idle then? You can keep giving it enough gas via the petal (sp?) until it warms up without harming it, just keep it below 2k while warming it up. Once it is warm, does it stay idling?

Where are you at in MO? I'm here in Farmington.

yeah my tach doesnt work, and it was making a sortof chirping lawnmower noise,?,kinda like an exauhst leak.
its a 79 and it supposedly ran fine before the prev. owner removed the wiring harness.
but it is gettin spark to all the plugs, im not sure if its gettin sark past the plugs but they look fairly new, just had gas on them.
im to afraid ill damage something to sit there and hold it till it warms up,
thanks for your help, i gunna go check the timing, and will report cosequences.
oh yeah, im in Springfield, the big little city

If you had gas on the plugs directly after running the car or trying to start the car, it could be that is it flooding. You may be running too rich of a mixture.

Generally when the tach doesn't work, it is the trailing ignitor that is bad and when it is bad, the trailing spark plugs don't get spark (IIRC). The car will still run, but be rough and low on power. Since you're getting spark to all four plugs I would guess that isn't it and you just haven't hooked up your tach wire yet.

Check:

1. Timing
2. Vacuum Leaks
3. Flooding

my vote is a vac leak

what can i do about the flooding, I think its flooded from the times i tried to start it and it wasnt getiing spark, would just letting it set for awhile help?
and my tach doesnt work, but i have everything hooked up that has somewhere to go.
i was gunna check the timming but have to hunt down a light,
im so confused and kinda glad it actully kinda started up.
thanks, im gunna need more help soon, i can feel it

For the timing, manually turn the e-shaft pulley clockwise (looking at it from the front) until the first mark on it lines up with the timing pin protruding from the block.

Now, take the distributor cap off. The plastic rotor should have the top electrode that is marked with the arrow pointing at the L1 pickup on the cap when it is on. If it isn't, you need to remove the distributor to turn the rotor and then place it back in the block. Once you have gotten that lined up then pop off the plastic rotor and the metal dust cap. The star shapped metal rotor underneath should have one of its points directly across from the front ignitor pickup. If it isn't, then adjust the distributor without taking it out this time by turning it either way just a little to match it up and then re-tighten the adjustment bolt. You should now be ATDC or 0deg.

Of course that is all if you have an electronic dizzy and not the points style. If you have the points style, I'm not sure of what extra stuff has to be done.

For the tach, swap the two ignitors on the dizzy. If the car still starts and the tach doesn't work still then it isn't the ignitor it is a missed wire somewhere in the harness or the tach is burnt out. I think your tach on the 79 dualled as a volt meter too so there may be something else that is wrong with it. Before you start it, when the key is just on the On position, does it display the voltage on the Tach?

Something to get you started on the unflooding part:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ded+AND+engine

Just did a search on it. Common enough problem. There is a whole writeup on it here somewhere but didn't have the time to wade (sp?) through the search I did to find the link.

nest tutorial if needed.

Cheers.

And I prefer to call it Carl's tutorial ;) :D