Bought a 1989 N/A GXL two weeks ago, with the ignition timing SUPER advanced. I have gotten it to a point where It will slowly start on its own, but even with a little bit of more fine adjustment of the CAS before using a timing light, we still have to hold the gas to keep it at idle. Is it safe to assume here that other things may be clogged and dirty like the IAC or parts of the fuel system? I know other things like the idle speed control come in to play here as well. Does it require a fair amount of idle speed to keep it at idle with the timing off? My goal is to have her starting up easily and running. Also, when I went to use my timing light, I connected the power and the other clamp to the leading wire just behind the plug and got no light. I tried it again at the other end of that lead wire and still no light. What could be causing this?

 

Your timing light should have a black, red and spark plug clamp. Black goes to ground, red to hot and the clamp goes on the spark plug wire.

Sounds like you have a bad coil, ecu or timing light. Test the timing light on another vehicle, check for spark by removing one spark plug at a time and grounding it against the block while having someone crank it while you watch for spark.

the trailing plugs each have their own coil in the FC's, and the leading plugs use a wasted-spark where both spark plugs have to be in working order for there to be fire.
Careful, it can shock the living crap out of you.

 

I have never done timing on a rotary before. Where should I connect the ends for the light? It sounds like I had it connected wrong. I could try again.
Also, if the car doesn't feed gas on its own once it is in perfect time, what are some steps I ought to take?
Thanks!

 

Alright. Update time. Well, today, I thought, why not go try and start it, and what'll you have, it cranked right up. It idled at just under a thousand, which is good, and it sounded pretty stable. So I took it for a short drive around a couple of the circles in my neighbourhood, and got it back home safely. Now she won't start again. It honestly seems to me like a fuel delivery issue, since I have to give it a little gas to get it to try and start, then I risk flooding it. My battery began to weaken a little so I stopped trying to start it. The last time it ran, sitting in my driveway, I had the idle air speed turned up to where it would idle about 1500, and I turned it back down. We used a little bit of ether spray to start it up, and it seemed to not like that so we abandoned that idea. I'll post more as I discover more. In the meantime, I may try to get it started again and timed legitimately, because it's still not quite in time as precise as a timing light. Any advice?

 

Update - It may just be the TPS and some cleaning to do, but I went outside to try and start her up this morning. She turned over a few times, had 30secs of just dead nothing just about, then I. pulled out the key, waited a few seconds, turned it, gave her a smidge of gas and she cranked. She idled high [because I have idle speed set to where it will idle at ~1200], then I took my foot off the gas gingerly, and she puttered and died. Now, it looks as if my battery is basically dead. Lately, it has seemed like either something electrical or something fuel-delivery related, and now she won't crank again. Some suggestions on things to check out would be excellent. I have read about adjusting the TPS, which I may try. I just know it doesn't have a smog belt right now, and my exhaust system is a little screwed up. What should I be looking around at?

EDIT - When I started it earlier, it had lots of blue smoke. When I started it yesterday and drove it, it didn't smoke one bit.

 

Just wanted to tie this up. Tore motor out and apart, blown front rotor. Rebuilt it with FD 9.7 rotors milled for 3mm seals and FD housings, ported it almost 150% including all the intake runners, removed 5/6port actuators, removed emissions, and she'll scoot.