I recently transplanted a FD motor into a 1988 GXL. I was sent the wrong JDM motor and I'm currently trying to get some satisfaction from the guy I bought it from, Gary Burke from Motorworks in NY. It was a whole lot of work that will probably come out and the right motor will go back in. Anyway I put it in, hooked up all the connections, hoses, filled it with water and oil, crossed my fingers and tried to start it, my problem is no spark. I checked both coils, they were fine, I checked the crank angle sensor connection with an ohm meter it read fine. What's left to check, even if it were out of time, which it probably is, shouldn't I still get spark? Are my ignitors bad? Do I have to replace both of them or just the trailing one? I'm new to this rotary thing so don't know too much about them, but I'm learning real fast. It's hard to convince a diehard Chevy V8 man that rotaries are worth working on. But I'm determined to make this thing work. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

The EGI COMP and EGI INJECTOR fuse have to be good. Another big player is the ENGINE fuse in the interior fuse box. It pulls the Main relay in and supplies pwr to the coils and the ECU.

Go to the Lead coil assy. Find the small, white, two socket connector. With the key to ON, see if you have 12v on the black/yellow wire in that plug. Forget about the other wire. IF you have 23 there then all those fuses above are good.

I trust your using the stock eighty eight EM harness and all the plugs to the ECU and OTHER plugs on that EM harness are plugged in,

 

Thanks, the EGI COMP and EGI INJECTOR fuses are good. I haven't looked for the engine fuse yet, where in the hell is it located? I have a useless Haines manual, it's pretty vague on just about everything. I am using the stock 88 wiring harness and I have everything hooked up, accept one black two prong connection towards the front, behind the alternator. I either forgot where it went or covered up the location when I was putting things back together. Thanks for your help, I'll give what you said a try.

 

The Engine fuse is shown halfway down this page: https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494667

On the back of the water pump HOUSING, there is a water thermo sensor. It has a two wire plug that goes to it. It has a green jack on it. The color of the plug escapes me. It MUST be connected or you'll not have enough fuel on COLD starts due to the ECU defaulting to 176 degrees default setting when the connection is lost.

ENGINE fuse is in the inteior, third row from the bottom, second or third fuse over from your left when looking into the box. No engine fuse, no start. No spark, no fuel.

 

Hey Hailers,

Thanks for the info. I forgot to say the cover on the fuse box is missing. I don't want to sound like a total idiot but when it comes to RX7's I am. I checked all the fuses and they looked okay. Checked the connection on the leading coil and it read 11.8 volts. The connection to the water pump is connected. I forgot to say the FD motor I have does not have a cold start connection from the oil pan. Like I said it was the wrong the block to start with, so I wasn't able to hook up the oil thermal line to the the cold start. Is that where things are going crazy? The line that isn't hooked up is a single black wire with a two prong connnection. I forgot to say I DO have fuel. Man this is driving me crazy. Thanks again for any help. You sound like you know what's going on. I wish you were here to help.

 

The Lead coil is the one you need to concentrate on. The car will run without the trails working at all and you'd never notice they were not working. BUT, a hint of whether or not the trail coil is working, is that when you crank the engine over, the tach needle will make a smalll movement up/down. That movement means you do have spark at the trail coils for sure.

The cold start wires in the pan have zip to do with the running of the car.

I can't think of a single connector that has one wire and two sockets.

Is this the original harness??????/ of the 88 car????? say yes.

Black/yellow wire in the small, white, two socket connector on the lead coil reading 11.8 (batt voltage) is good. It means the fuses are good. The fuses being the EGI COMP, EGI INJ, ENGINE.

Do you have the cas out of your old engine?????????? Also can you identify the two small hash marks on your front pulley that are the timing marks?????????????

 

What do you mean when you ask if I have the cas out of the old engine? The crank angle sensor, if so yes I do. I lined up the yellow mark on the pulley then lined up the marks on the cas and dropped it in. I could have the thing way off time, but wouldn't I still get a spark even if it wasn't at the right time? The marks on the front pulley are easily identified. The wiring harness is the original one that came with the car. The crappy Haines manual doesn't show how to static time it and when I unbolted the pulleys from the front hub I could have moved them. Everything was kind of a mess for awhile. Is there an easy way to make sure the timing is even close? Thanks.

 

Next time, remove the flat black cover off the cas. Align the marks at the bottom. Now hold that and look in the insides of the cas. Make note of where things are. Now install the cas. You notice the rotor (cas rotor), moved a bit as you installed the cas. Now turn the body of the cas until the insides align as they were when you first aligned the bottom marks. IF you do that the timing will be almost spot on.

I was going to suggest taking the old cas and install the elect plug on it but not install the cas. Just leave the other one in the engine.

Now move one of the LEAD coil wires just to the edge of the coil bore. Turn the key to ON. Now spin the cas's bottom gear. There might be a spark from the coil to the wire that you just moved to the edge of the coil bore.

And/or you should hear the injectors click as you spin the cas.

You do this to confirm there is really no spark. A slow moving starter means a slow moving cas and hence a low output from the cas to the ECU which in turn means diddly spark. Little spark. Weak spark.

It only takes about fifteen minutes most to do that with the cas. On the outside.

Pulleys on the front hub have an offset pattern and only go on one way, UNLESS you wallow out a hole or two. You didn't do that so it's on right.

 

Thanks Hailers,

There was no cas in the replacement motor that I got. So had to transfer the original over. I did notice that the holes were offset on the front pulley. So am pretty sure I have the timing marks lined up. I'll try to take the cas out and spin it like your suggested. If I don't get any spark then what! That wire I was trying to to describe early that wasn't hooked up is green with a black stripe, (one wire with a 2 prong black connector) any idea were this should go. It's the only one that I don't have hooked up. You've been a lot of help so far. I called the guy I bought the motor from and he agreed to take it back and give me a full refund, including shipping. But I just gotta try this before I take it back out and take all the stuff off it and crate it up. But I think the things going to run crappy even if I do get spark and get it running. Thanks again.

 

Green/black is the wire for the auxillary fan thermostat switch. That switch won't be there if you don't have an auxillary fan in front of the a/c condenser. All cars have that wire whether or not the car has an aux fan.

Yeah. Spin the cas with your fingers and the key to ON. The reason I mention that method is that there's no dragging the battery down doing it and the engine isn't spinning over which means the spark, if any, should be large.

No spark after doing that???? Got me. All your fuses were good if I remember right. All elect plugs are on. Got me for now.

But, say you have spark. Good. Now reinsert the cas with the pulley marks aligned and taking notice of the guts of the cas when your through installing the cas.

 

One of the most common problem with swaps, is that people forget to connect the ground.. It should be a 2 wire oval connector, that goes attached to the block. This is the main ground, and without it you get no spark.. TRy looking by where the injectors harness side is..

 

Thanks guys,
I did remember to hook up the ground. Thanks for the info. on the green/black wire, that kinda had me bugged. Still haven't tried spinning the cas, my new job doesn't leave much time to play with this stupid engine. The guy I bought the motor from said he would take it back, all I have to do is pull it again, strip all the good stuff off, put it in a crate with all the crap that came on it and ship it back with a full refund. Think I'll do that and get away from a big headache. Maybe I'll rebuild what I've got or try to get another JDM motor (only the right one this time). What do you think? Thanks alot for all your help. If I do one or the other and still don't have spark could one or both of the ignitors be bad?

 

I know this has been discussed in great length, but I'm new to this whole RX7 scene. I have a line on a complete JDM engine and 5-spd. trans. with an uncut wiring harness and ECU for a turbo. Do I need a different hood? Will the stock driveshaft still work? Can I leave the stock 5-spd. in. I found out I need a different throttle cable, no big deal, but am I getting into something that might be a big nightmare. I have an 88 GXL that I would like to put a turbo in, it has a 5-spd. originally for $1,350 bucks. Does this sound like a good deal? Or should I just find a JDM N/A motor, stick it in and hope it works? I'm looking for the easiest way to make things work, it will probably end up being a daily driver, except for the winter. Wish I knew more about these engines, I'm basically a V-8 man, but would like to learn something new. Any advice, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.