finally got the engine rebuilt and back into my 90 turbo and can't get it started. Got gas and spark, no codes from the ecu. Started looking at the timing. Put everything together and lined up the dots on the CAS and installed it. Pulled the cover off the CAS and this is what I found when the 5 Degreee TDC mark is line up on the pully. The reluctor is not even close to being lined up on the magnetic pickup on the CAS. Should it be. Even if I rotate the CAS all the way to the stop it still is about 10-15 degrees off.

 

nope. looks good. , if you take the cas out and line the marks on the shaft with the mark on the body, you'll see the points under the cap pointing exactly were you have them. from the way it looks...

a photo from the top instead of the side woulda been nice, jackass. but your at least close enough to put a timing light on it...

 

if you take the little plastic plug out of the CAS cover, and put the cover back on, one of the big CAS teeth should be right in the hole in the CA cover. adjust until it is, and put the little plastic plug back in, and you're within a degree or two

 

Maybe these two pictures make it a little clearer. the first show that when the yellow mark is line up the reluctor isn't even close to the mag pickup to fire the plugs. The second pictures show's the reluctor at the mag pick up, but the yellow timing mark is just barely visible coming under the alternator pulley. The rotors only fit on the shaft one way so it's impossible to get those wrong. The pulley boss bolts only line up one way, so again, not possible to have that part wrong. I line up the mark on the shaft of the CAS with the arrow on the body and inserted and this is what I ended up with. Is it possible to line up the timing mark, then line up the CAS so that when it's installed the pickup is lined up with the reluctor?

 

the CAS does not fire the coils directly, it just sends the RPM and engine position to the ecu, and then the ecu fires the coils. so the ecu needs to see the reluctor BEFORE it fires the coils.

 

The pickup alignment in your picture is perfect and spot on. When timing is dialed in correctly the large pointy part points to the edge of the pickup sensor. There is nothing wrong, drive your car

 

Love to drive it, but it won't start. So, what I've learned. The top Button on the CAS should be at the leading edge of the MAG pickup before it hits the yellow mark on the shaft. Right now, it's past the leading edge moving away from the pickup before the timing mark hits the point. shouldn't the CAS point be at the leading edge and moving towards the pickup as the shaft rotates in a clockwise direction. Facing the engine clockwise and the CAS rotates counterclockwise? Maybe I put the flipping worm gear in backwards and the CASs rotating the wrong way. That would out the Timing 180 degrees out.

 

If you line up the pulley at the leading mark and actually have the CAS out of the hole,Then line up the marks on the CAS at the BOTTOM of the CAS where the gear is.You will see a mark on the bottom shaft of the CAS to correspond with a dimple on the gear.
Hold the Inner guts of the CAS while placing it back into the Front cover hole and Voila.you are just about Spot on for timing.
The outer casing MAY move a touch when installing it BUT that is why it is slotted at that 10mm nut/pin.
When you go to time the car you can move the outer casing while watching the timing marks on the Pulley and get them to line up...Tada!..DONE.

 

1

 

okay, the cas will center the the redactor twice per engine revolution. One time the CAS button with a little circular indentation near the point and once with the other redactor tip. I line up the alignment marks on the CAS and drop it into the hole being careful not to disturb the alignment until the teeth at the bottom engage and begin to rotate it around counterclockwise further away from the forward pick up. I pop the top off the cas cover and do not see the pointer anywhere in sight. I rotate the CAS clockwise and Counterclockwise to the stops and still do not see it. I pull out the CAS and rotate the crank clockwise until the yellow timing mark lines up under the pin again and line up the alignment marks on the bottom of the CAS and drop it into the hole, again, being careful not to let it rotate until it engages the teeth at the bottom and still no joy.

 

forget lining up the bottom, line up the top

 

Found a great article on RX-7 ignitions systems and timing that I thought I would share. Probably more than you'll ever need to know but the last part about finding TDC was helpful, maybe put a sticky on it:

De-Mystifying

After I found Where TDC is in relation to where the timing marks are, I've come to the conclusion that I don't have so much a CAS alignment problem as I do a pulley problem. After I figured out where TDC center was using the spark plug method above. I could see that the first time mark was about 20 degrees off TDC. I rooted around and found another pulley that I had, marked TDC on it and you can see the difference. The bottom Pulley is the one that was installed and the top one is one I had in a parts bin. Not sure how I got them swapped, but whatever. As you can see the Gold TDC mark is a lot closer the actual timing mark.

 

Notice the difference between the picture and the original one I posted. This is after I changed the pulley.