No Spark/Where is my condenser?

[uefa5]

Ok I have a 75, transistor ignition, and a california car and im not getting spark off of the coil. My coil is new, my links are new, my transistor ignition is new b/c the old one had a burnt spot on the circuit board. I am 90% sure all my wires are good. I am thinking that my condenser is bad which is why im not getting a circuit and thus the lack of sparks, I am getting 12v to the coil assembly and then 5 ish after the resistor on the coil itself when the ignition is "on" But where is the condenser on this car? I can't find it.....

any help is greatly appreciated, ive been having a hell of a time trying to get this car running

Thanks

[zcarnut]

A condenser is a capacitor that is placed across a mechanical switch contacts (like ignition points) to prevent arcing across the contacts opening when they open. Transistor ignitions do not need such protection, hence the condenser is not needed. They will have a small capacitor across the switching transistor to reduce EMI, but it is typically 100 times smaller in value than a condenser.

 

Five volts at the coil side of the resistor is too low when the ignition is “onâ€. It should be more than 9.6V. It appears that the transistor is biased so it is on continuously (instead of being pulsed). Since you have changed the coil and the ignition unit, your problem could be the trigger coil in the distributor. Do you have another distributor you can try?

[uefa5]

Thanks for the info! I dont have an extra distributor, is there a way to test the whether or not he trigger coil is working properly with the distributor on the car? or will i have to take off the distributer to see/test it

[zcarnut]

Well the “bench method†of testing the distributor pick-up coils is to remove it from the car and connect it to a good ignition unit and a good coil. Rotate the distributor shaft by hand and check for a spark.

 

BTW, are you sure the wiring is OK?

[uefa5]

would the bad pick up coils really keep my coil from sparking? At this point i guess i am more worried that i am only getting 6v on the coil after the resistor, when you said i should probably be getting closer to 9.6v. Because as i said i can get full battery voltage before the resistor

 

anyone the exact specs on that resistor? as of right now it is showing 1.6 ohms... im looking through my manuals trying to find that now so i will know if it functioning correctly or not

[josh817]

I would try and trash it. I'm trying to get 12v START and RUN. Junked the ballast resistor that you probably don't have as my car is a 1972 240z. However I would like to ask you, Uefa5 if you have the transistor which sits above the coil, and if it is even necesarry.

 

My coil was used with a turbo motor before but I switched to the D6F4-03 distributor, which is the California model electric single pickup distributor from a '77-'78 280Z. I want to know if I can trash that transistor and run straight lines or will my dizzy fail without it. If it works then I wonder if you can trash your resistor/maybe we're talking about the same thing. I'm too scared to hook up 12v to it from the tach/ignition switch because I don't want to fry my dizzy or my coil. Also check the position of the key. Perhaps your Z is setup like mine was where it does 12v on START and then on RUN it does the 6v or 9v, whatever its suppose to be.

 

Here is a picture of what I'm talking about (right above the coil with the connector):

 

So not to steal a topic, hopefully this can help us both but while we're at it, is it possible the we can trash these things which connect our coils?