I'm very new to the wonderful world of rotaries, having purchased my 89 Convertible about 2-3 weeks ago. About a week after i had gotten the car, the tachometer started having a problem where it would drop to 0rpm and stick there, forcing the 'check engine' light to come on. Talked to various people online and at the local rotary shop, they suggested replacing the trailing ignitor. Well, just got the ignitor in the car today, started it up, and lo and behold, tachometer still drops to 0. Anyone have any other suggestions as to what it could be?

Edit: The engine definitely runs smoother with the new ignitor, just wondering if I should still be worried?

 

Trailing coil is not firing if the tach is not working. You need to check out the connections to the trailing coils (the rear coils- not the front coil next to the battery).

 

Fixed the issue.... Seems that at some point in the car's past, someone had decided that the body ground wasn't neccisary.... Well, re-wired that, and now everything seems to be working flawlessly....

 

What did you "rewire"? The ground with the capacitor? There is no dedicated wire coming from the coils or ignitor that's grounded...