Hmm, it seems that this pops up every once in a while with the whole pulley being put on wrong. I remember when we tried to test timing on my '82 and were scratching our heads for days why timing was 270* off and the engine ran fine...

Yeah, as was stated, do not remove the jumbo nut... you want the pulleys not the hub. Soak the crap out of that pulley in some PB Blaster and use a hammer or pry bar if you cant to get that sucker off, they like to fuse themselves like barnacles sometimes...

GL on getting it repaired.

 

Details tomorrow, but I got mine working properly. All four plugs are firing, and I can adjust trailing timing with the vacuum pot. Still having issues with loss of power at higher rpms and backfiring, but now I think it's a lack of backpressure issue (My cat is gutted and muffler blew off)

Very tired, but I promise explanations!

 

Never mind, read one of your previous posts.

 

I want to make sure I got this right. 4-10mm's hold the outer pulley which can be thrown away as it is not being re used. Then an additional 3 bolts hold the inner (timing) pulley and the bigass bolt needs to stay in to avoid ruining bearings in the front cover? At least that is what i got from those three links... Sound correct? Going to go start tearing into it here in another hour or so...

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...lywheel+timing
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-archive-71/ignition-main-pully-timing-525909/

using these two threads in addition to everyones help I found that I was wrong, the pulley was set correct but my dizzy was 180 degrees off. Pulled out and re-stabbed, and it is now pointing at L1 as it should. However the bog is still there.

So next I tried removing and replacing the coils (regardless of testing fine) Noticed that there is still a bog around 3000rpm but it seems much more powerful as it is happening. And that around 4000rpm it comes right out of it!

Next I started the car on each coil individually. On the leading side she starts right up and idles beautifully. Trailing side it will start but not nearly so smooth. (note- I also found that unhooking the signal wires from the coils is a very bad idea! It ******* HURTS when a coil shocks you!!)

Now I am thinking that the zero split has disappeared but the signal from the ignitors is not as strong as it should be so I will be taking them out individually and cleaning up where they contact the dizzy.

 

HAHAHA! I GOT IT!

After removing and cleaning up the ignitors I took it for a spin and the bog was there but different. I gave the dizzy a little nudge in both directions and it did improve a bit, then went for another drive. Seemed to be knocking as in too advanced timing. Disconnected the trailing, remembering that it was max advanced when we were noticing zero split.

Went for another ride and everything has changed! She pulled smooth and hard through every gear, and even gave the tires a small chirp going into fourth. Has never done that before.

So now I know that the trailing was messing everything up so untill I can get a timing light on there to dial everything in the car will be running without a tach.

Thank you again to everyone who offered up advice. It appears we have won this battle!

 

Heh heh. Silly rabbit.

 

I know it's been a few days, but things piled up on me pretty fast this week.


So what I had done, was take everything apart. I unplugged the battery, took the coils out, took my plug wires off, took my cap off, unplugged the wiring harness from the dizzy, opened the wiring harness all the way down (only to where it splits near the tire) cleaned every connector that was electrical, tested every wire, re-tested every wire, re-wrapped the harness, and plugged everything back in exactly where the fsm said to. (The only thing confusing me is using the negative terminal from the ignition coil going to the dizzy)

All four of my plugs are firing, and now I can use the vacuum pot on the side of the dizzy to adjust my trailing timing.

I also got a muffler. (2nd hand C6 corvette muffler) I had quite a time welding that to the original pipe, but that was mostly overlooking small things. I got it attached and it sounds great. (read: I no longer set off car alarms when I drive by) I noticed a few pinhole leaks in the rest of the exhaust system, the most noteworthy being on the tube going from the cat to the (air pump?) so there's still a few things to contend with until I get my cat this weekend.

I'm still searching for my gremlin, but knowing my spark is proper and timing is spot on will make the rest of the troubleshooting more accurate.

Thanks to everyone for your help and advice.


PS: On a semi-unrelated note, I also put a new speedometer and logic board behind the instrument cluster in. It's nice to have a ballpark of my speed/rpm ratio. . . :-) and. . .you know. . .backlights. . ..lol