crazyoctopus

found this post http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=146660&highlight=coil+resistor and am going to try it in the morning, hopefully it will be my savior.

alrighty, so i recently bought a 73 240z project car and i am stuck. the problem started with no fuel, but the fuel pump was bad, so i swapped in a new one and other than the lines being clogged, that issue is resolved. then i checked to see if i was getting spark, and i was not. so i replaced the distributor cap, points, rotor (the guy that spins in the distributor), coil, spark plugs, and plug wires (installed correctly checked twice). still no spark. so i started to forum search to try to diagnose the problem. ==to check if i got spark or not i removed the plug wire from the #1 spark plug and put it close to the block, head, and spark lug to see if it arced. -I checked to see if the coil was getting power by removing the ground wire, attaching a new one, and seeing if there was spark whever i touched it to brae metal. -hard lined positive end of the coil to the positive terminal on the battery, hard lined a new ground to the negative side of the terminal, checked to see if i got spark, nope. there are a few things attached to the coil and distributor that i am not really sure if i need them/ what they attach to, and they might be what is causing the no spark. here is the coil 1. is a coil condenser? i think. this came with the car and the wire was borken so i spliced it back together 2. BY wire, is a wire that goes to, i think, the ignition. 3. is possibly a ground but i have no idea where it grounds out 4. i have no idea what relay it is 5. i have no idea what this is here is a condenser that i replaced, and there is a prong sitting at teh top of it that apparently goes to the coil negative side, but where would i connect it.

i have been a rotary kid since i was 15 (nearly 10 years now), and i finally made the choice to switch over to the engine masterbating lifestyle. over a period of 5 months i finally narrowed my project car of choice down to either the MGB or a 240z. It wasnt until i found non-running 240z with a bit of rust for $500 to push me to get it. the last time this car was running was back in 1991, and it has pretty much been sitting ever since. with this in mind, i knew that i would have to get a new engine. granted there is the off chance that this engine would run, i found an engine with SU carbs and tranny for $300 and couldn't pass up the chance just to swap it over. when i got the car to my house i made a decision that i did not want to spend over 1000 to get the engine running. i knew that it would be a tough thing to manage, but i figured that with some of the parts that i sell off of it i would make back the difference. another reason why i chose the low budget rebuild is because this car is not going to be a show car, or a 100% original spec car; it is going to be a track car driven on the street. -- day 1 of working on the car was pretty much spent learning what things did what, what went where, and what i could remove. Living in california has its perks when it comes to classic cars because anything built before 1975 is smog exempt. I know, for experience with my Rx7s, that removing smog equipment doesnt give you much, if any, power gains; but what it does do is reduce the amount of stuff that can fail and break. -- day 2 of working on the car was actually removing all of those worthless bits and pieces that i mapped out the day prior. on a side note, when i do get the time i am going to post an "idiots guide to a nearly no cost emissions removal" so that all of the kids who say "i want someone to tell me exactly what i can remove" wont have to ask again; it will include pictures for the illiterate. To finish the day off of emissions removal, we also pulled the engine and tranny out of the project car getting ready to put in the recently smogless engine -- day 3 was spent somewhat cleaning the engine bay, painting, and installing the engine -- day 4 and 5 was spent connecting, blocking off, and replacing bad coolant lines, installing spark plugs and wires, flushing the engine, tranny, and gas tank. Near the end of the day i took the battery out of my daily and tried to see if it would turn over. CLICK, then nothing. my first thought is that it was a bad starter, and since i had another one that came off the one that came out of the car i swapped them and tried again. CLICK. damn. the clicking came form the passenger side glove box area and after a bit of forum searching i found out that the CLICK that i heard was the accessory relay. I tried super grounding the starter (jumper cable from oil drain plug to chassis). but that didnt work either. so then i jumpered the starter cap. it spun. it took a couple tries to get the teeth to match up, but it started to rotate. it never started though. after this i called it an evening, and would start on it in the morning. -- day 6 was spent trying to diagnose the problems. since the starter was somewhat working (i still have to jumper the starter), i needed to find out if i wasnt getting spark or fuel. since the fuel hose was right there i disconnected the hose put it in some extra gas and tried to find out if the pump was working; it wasnt. so i picked up a new one for $35 at kragen (normally 59, but i got a discount! first one ever). while waiting in line i did a bit more forum searching and found that because the car has sat for soo long i would need to prime the system with fuel before i continued, so manually pump the fuel in. when i got home i put the new pump in, put on the cleaner valve cover, and forgot to prime the system. right now i figure that i still need to find out if i need spark so no biggie. after i installed the new pump i went to check if i was getting spark by removing a wire at the plug but there was nothing. awesome. i checked to see if the coil was getting power by removing the negative terminal and attaching a cable from that terminal to a ground to see if i was getting spark. while there wasnt a big spark when i tried to remove it, there were small ones. i did the light test to see if there was power going to the distributer with a light test, and there was nothign shown. lame. i called it a night and would be back at kragen for a new coil and distributer stuff. =at the end of day 5 thwe total spent was $999, and that includes the price of the car! -- this brings us to today, day 6. I picked up the new coil, and ordered all of the distributor parts and they will arrive on teh 28th. i have yet to install the coil to see if that is all that i needed to get spark. there are a couple more things that i need to work out, but i will forum search before i ask em formally. i have yet to check to see if i am getting fuel to the carbs, but if i am not there is a good chance that the fuel line is blocked by something. --I have been meaning to post this for a few days, but i have been too dirty handed to type, so sorry for the long post. --there is the option of going with an electric distributor and fuel pump, but i want to keep this car as mechanical as possible. less cables = more awesome. more photos can be found at my flickr site HERE