Side effects of no trailing spark.
 

Okay, I've been working on getting my car unflooded to no avail for a little while now. It fouled some plugs, cleaned them, while they were out cranked until the fuel fumes stopped, tried again, no start, etc.. everything short of ATF and new plugs. I'm avoiding ATF until I'm all out of options. I figured maybe I wasn't getting spark so I hooked my timing light up to the battery and put the sensor thing around the leading coils #1 rotor plug, light show, then the #2 rotor wire, light show, moved it over to the trailing #1 no good. #2 no good. So for some reason I'm not getting anthing out of the trailing coils. My questions are:

Could no trailing spark be the cause of my car not starting?

Could no trailing spark have been making my car sound like a piston motor with a dropped cylinder? kind of a pulsing sound going through the rev range...

She would probably be just a bit tougher to start, yeah, but...

Is your tach working? If so, then your trailing system should be...

Are the plugs so soaked that no spark could jump in the first place?

Timing lights are notorious for showing no spark when in fact there is one on our cars...

Try moving the pickup's location on the plug wires...

If no trailing system, symptoms would be lower power on average, worse gas mileage, no tach...

grab a used spark plug anywhere if you got one, one that still sparks, plug it into a trailing wire then lay it on a good ground and crank the engine. it is a much better test than any other. ;)

Cool, I'll try it that way, the light was sort of a I need to get to College better make this quick thing... I've cleaned the plugs three times now and they just keep getting fouled again. Tach was working just fine at least it was at the last time the car ran... if this next shot doesn't work I'm just gonna pick up new plugs and ATF this thing... :(

Pull the spark plug wire off the spark plug and let it arc to a known ground point.
This increases the power to "fire" the spark, and this should trigger the timing gun.

As for the original question, with no trailings, the car should start a hair slower; power will be down slightly, and the engine will "feel" like it's running a little richer.

In fact, this is what the infamous "anti-detonation device" does.

You really can't tell if the trailings are firing - the car should drive almost normal, but if you're really sensitive to how your car is running, it should feel a little sluggish.


-Ted

Can you explain that? Havent heard of this before.

https://www.rx7club.com/search.php?searchid=274078

Or keyword search "anti detonation device"...

There's a reason why most of the threads are locked. :)


-Ted