i recently posted to the newb forum to introduce myself, of course that hasn't made it through the mods/gods of the forum, but i have a 1980 LS sa22, it isn't quite firing up.

one thing i need to mention before i go any further is that the ignition on this car has been THRASHED. i have to hold some bare wire up against a B/w wire and touch the W/r wire to it to get the starter to turn over.

i also have noticed that only either the leading spark plugs, or the trailer plugs will fire depending on which igniton coil i hook them up to. IIRC, the leading are "lower" and the trailing and "top" right???

either way, i ohm'd out the one "BAD" coil and it comes back with continuity, but no spark out of it. the other is the same way but it fires spark. since i have continuity but still no spark could it still be a bad coil??? thanks in advance for the advice.
if it is a bad coil, does anybody have one i can get from them? im in orygun

 

Trailing ignition will only fire under certain conditions on S1 cars. It will not fire while idling.

Lower is leading, top is trailing.

If you still have a points distributor, consider upgrading to later model electronic ignition (fairly simple).

Good luck...



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Ok, that makes sense, but when I switched the coil wire that runs from the coil to the dizzy it reversed the effects. So one coil would fire either set of spark plugs, but the other would not. Im still leaning toward a bad coil

 

Also of note is that when crank it over, it really wants to fire, the tach reads like 2k. But I have to hold the wiring together on the ignition (its busted)

 

check your timing, your points may be bad

 

My 79 RX7's Tac pointer would bounce up to 1000 rpm's to 1500 plus and down again in less than a second time interval. The problem was not my wiring, it was the Distributor "Points Plate" that was lifting upwards by a 1/4 inch. Remove the 2 screws holding the plate down, and lube the bearing under it, and the weights also. (My bearing were bad, I did not feel a smooth rotation of the plate after lubeing it)...This lifting of the plate, caused the trailing points rub block to touch the cam prematurly, making the points open too soon. Test this by lifting the plate with your fingers at one end and watch to see if your points open and close. . .This opening made my RPM gauge to be unreadable, and Yes my timing was not the best and it really was the timing issue that led me to shim the plate which gave me a steady timing dwell and consequently a Tac that now reads steady. I shimmed the "Point Plate" with a thicker washer at the hold down screw, to hold it downwards preventing the 1/4 inch upward lifting, but, remember the plate must have a gap under it for the vacuum advances of the Leading & Trailing to move freely. Greg5656

 

this is an 80' , it has the electronic ignition. no points here.