1979 280zx reasons for no spark.

[japscrap]

I have a 1979 280zx n.a,   that was my daily driver for a long time. I was out tooling around the town, got home and parked the car.  I went back out 30 minutes later to leave, and I had no spark.  It would not start or pop or try to run at all. I had a strong fully charged battery with a good charging system, fresh plug wires and plugs.  It had a fairly new cap and rotor along with a fresh tank of gas. So I went and checked all of the fuses and replaced all of the fuses located on the passenger kick panel under the glove box. I swapped ignition coils as well as Ignition ballast/resistor with no luck. The car was a very strong runner before it just lost all spark. A little about the car,  it has the 2.8 but the P.O pulled the fuel injection and swapped on a edelbrock 4 barrel along with a clifford 6=8 intake. It has the original  wiring harness still attached. It ran perfect and was a champ all before just randomly. loosing all the spark, I can take pictures and shoot videos of what ever you may want.   I am about to get the volt meter and attempt to trace where I am loosing the electrical current! The rotor also turns in the distributor just fine when you crank.


new ignition control unit
new cap/rotor
new wires
new plugs
new fuses
new ballast resistor

 

I am at my wits ends.  I own a 240 with a 2.7 and a forced fed six pack.  This is the one car I can not get spark on thus far.  ugh.
 

 

[NewZed]

1979 didn't have a ballast resistor.  Not clear what you're really working with.

[japscrap]

I will shoot a video for you all, in the mean time here goes a picture of what I replaced on the ignition coil.

it is the little white ceramic resistor??  that is in the middle of the ignition coil strap.

Edited October 20, 2014 by japscrap

[NewZed]

If you mean the thing I circled in red, that's a capacitor, aka condenser.  They do go bad occasionally.  I see no ceramic pieces.  

 

The miss on the condenser makes one wonder what you meant by ignition control module.  The coil looks stock.  Might be worthwhile to browse through the FSM, Engine Electrical, and make sure you're getting the names right, at least.  There are some parts on the ZX type distributors that can break after many miles.

[japscrap]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAGUP1ciHrM&feature=youtu.be

 

[NewZed]

I kind of jumped ahead and back and forth in the story but I got the impression that you did not have the spark plug properly grounded.  That would be one reason for no spark when testing.  Normally the ground strap of the plug grounds through the threads of the plug, which are in contact with the head.  Yours are hanging in mid-air.  When you hold them in your hands they are also ungrounded unless you are touching the block or the body.  Even then, if your hands are dry and calloused, you'll get a poor ground.  It's a bad idea anyway since they'll give a good shock.  

 

Set the plug on the valve cover with the threads making good contact with the metal. Or run a jumper wire fromthe ground strap to the body or block. Then look for spark.

[(goldfish)]

Sorry I didn't see this yesterday, I totally would have stopped by to help out.

As NewZed said, the spark plug needs to be on metal / grounded on the outside of the plug to work.

When the coil is powered up, remove the ground wire from the coil.  this should make it spark.