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Why do I have no spark?


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My 240z has been giving me trouble for way too long. At first I was having hesitations at highway speed or during aggressive acceleration. On reddit it was suggested that may have been a distributor issue. So I swapped out the points and cap and condensers and whatever else. Spark Plug wires swapped too. Still problems.

So I headed to the forums and decided that the distributor itself was the issue so I swapped it to an electronic distributor from a 280zx. Did some mild re-wiring, cut out the ballast (BW to GW and BW to terminal on coil) soldered and we were good to go or so I thought. It started up like a million bucks and drove off no problem. Go to get gas and Boom it leaves me stranded no spark.

I figured well it was an old coil maybe that was the issue, I change the coil to a NGK 240z coil. Starts up again great, go to get on the highway it dies I got nothing at the pedal. Cools down a bit we wiggle some wires it starts then we head off again, get home to check some stuff, no spark. Then I changed it to a new 1980 280zx NGK coil and swapped out the e12-92 module on the distributor to an e12-80 IC, Still no spark. I wired directly from my battery to my new coil skipping over the ignition. Still no spark. Re-did my negative battery terminal to my firewall and my negative to the engine/starter. Re-did the wiring between my coil and distributor and double/triple checked that I did it as per the wiring diagram. See here: https://imgur.com/gallery/G7adJPd

Wtf am I missing. The engine turns over so I know I got enough battery for that. I've been checking spark right at the coil. I skipped the ignition and key so that can't be the issue. What am I missing here? Why can’t I get any spark? I’m so frustrated with this car right now. Any help is appreciated 

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it may be a short in the wiring path from the ignition switch to the coil & distributor. I would check all the wring from there including the positive side running through the tach.  I had a similar situation on my 240Z when i first got it. It was very intermittent & frustrating. I gave up on it & had it towed to Whitehead's since it also needed to be road safetied as well before being plated. Turned out to be a bad wire in the engine harness to the cabin connection. I would also go back to the same set up in the 2nd paragraph of your post with an appropriate coil. I use a MSD Blaster II with my ZX distributor swap.

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Sounds like the stator or magnet or pickup coil in the distributor itself is broken or the wires have shorted.  Download a 280ZX FSM and look in the Electrical chapter to see how to test those parts, or disassemble the distributor.  In short, you probably have a  bad distributor.  Is it used?  The bushings wear out in the ZX distributors, allowing the reluctor wheel to hit the pickup coil points.

 

Here's a good description.

 

https://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

Edited by NewZed
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/4/2021 at 3:32 PM, NewZed said:

Sounds like the stator or magnet or pickup coil in the distributor itself is broken or the wires have shorted.  Download a 280ZX FSM and look in the Electrical chapter to see how to test those parts, or disassemble the distributor.  In short, you probably have a  bad distributor.  Is it used?  The bushings wear out in the ZX distributors, allowing the reluctor wheel to hit the pickup coil points.

 

Here's a good description.

 

https://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

So I swapped to the e12-80 module no spark. Switch back to the e12-92 module  and tons of spark go for a drive start to give it and it dies.  Wait a bit and wiggle the wires on the top of the module and it starts. What you think is happening? 

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On 6/13/2021 at 8:12 PM, Mike745 said:

So I swapped to the e12-80 module no spark. Switch back to the e12-92 module  and tons of spark go for a drive start to give it and it dies.  Wait a bit and wiggle the wires on the top of the module and it starts. What you think is happening? 

 

Did you get new parts or used?  The E12 modules are old and failing.

 

You can use the red and green wires in the ZX distributor to run a GM HEI module.

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