88 ignition help

[FestYboy]

check your mechanical timing before you do anything else!!!

and what yellow wires? the only one that's yellow near the coil is for tach pickup, they don't affect the spark output. also, don't try to use EFI wire diagrams to diag your Carby system, totaly different.

[TDI_ftw]

Mechanical seems ok, it's smoking fairly bad, sounds like it dropped a valve or burnt a seat in one cylinder.
I can do a compression test after I get more gas, it ran pretty well 4 times down a long gravel driveway and died 3 feet into the road out front.

[WmWatt]

Here's what I get from looking at the coil on my carburetted '89 and the wiring diagrams in the Haynes manual....

Looking: +ive post: blk/wht to distributor
blk/wht to firewall
blk to (condenser?) block beside distributor
-ive post: blu to distributor
wht to firewall
yel/grn to firewall

Hyanes manual: +ive post: Blk/Wht to distributor
blk/wht to igniton switch
blk to condenser
-ive post: blu to distributor
wht to computer
yel/grn to (optional) tachometer

Inside the distributor is the ignition control module. The wiring is not in the Haynes manual but has been described in other threads in this forum. The Haynes manual just shows two wires coming out of the distributor, one to the computer and one to a barometric switch which I think is for fuel efficiency when driving in the mountains

[TDI_ftw]

Ah I had it running without the white wire, not sure I even see one. There's a single yellow wire and a double yellow, thats all I can see.
Does 60ohm from dizy to negative battery terminal sound high?

I did have it running pretty well, not its a no spark issue again, didn't change anything!

Ok got the resistance from dizy to neg battery post to 6ohms. Still no change.
The weird thing is, if the dizy is taken out and spun by hand it sparks, put it in and nothing, take it back out, sparks!

[nitrofarm]

Ah I had it running without the white wire, not sure I even see one. There's a single yellow wire and a double yellow, thats all I can see.
Does 60ohm from dizy to negative battery terminal sound high?

I did have it running pretty well, not its a no spark issue again, didn't change anything!

Ok got the resistance from dizy to neg battery post to 6ohms. Still no change.
The weird thing is, if the dizy is taken out and spun by hand it sparks, put it in and nothing, take it back out, sparks!

Install the dist without the cap on. Crank the motor.Is the rotor spinning?

[TDI_ftw]

Yes unfortunately it is!
I finished rewiring the dizy and it still wont spark with the dizy in the head.


Just installed the dizy just shy of it touching the cam, so I could still spin it by hand, and it sparks.

Install dizy as normal and no spark while starting.

[TDI_ftw]

Ok made a little video showing this, I don't know whats going on here.
Would the 'key on' while cranking get shut off or be intermittent? I'm thinking that's the last thing here.
Could I just jump the coil to B+ and coil + without blowing the coil?


first

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zNxLGHs7Wo


continued

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZE17BgYOAw



Just measured voltage to the coil+ and bat - while cranking and it gets voltage, so what would cause the blue wire to not send a signal with the dizy all the way in? I also tried pulling the dizy out little by little and cranking it, still no spark.

[FestYboy]

i take it you verified that the rotor is turning with the cam while cranked?

[TDI_ftw]

yeah, you can see it in the video

[WmWatt]

deleted post

[nitrofarm]

You are shorting on dist housing. Find/fix short and you should be fine-

[TDI_ftw]

Thought I posted that it was fixed!!
Yes it was shorting, but it was at the coil, couldn't hear it with the car cranking.

I blew a headgasket yesterday, had to ride a bus 80 blocks and pick one up, replaced it right there on the side of the road, runs like a champ!

[TDI_ftw]

Thought I posted that it was fixed!!
Yes it was shorting, but it was at the coil, couldn't hear it with the car cranking.

I blew a headgasket yesterday, had to ride a bus 80 blocks and pick one up, replaced it right there on the side of the road, runs like a champ!

UPDATE

not solved, just cleaned the entire dizy, wires and such, and it still does the same thing.
I just drove it about 5 miles and it ran great, went to restart about three hours later and no spark, back to the same symptom.

[TDI_ftw]

Well I found a trick sort of, spinning it by hand real fast gets it to fire sometimes in the head.
freezing it with canned air to possibly bridge a broken circuit connection on the igniter worked once today, but now its a no spark.
I ordered an igniter so we shall see if that cures it, I havent found any test to see if it is good. I'm still clueless as to why it sparks outside the head almost every time, yet fails to spark inside the head.

there is no more grounding issue ive looked it over with a fine tooth comb and hawk ears for sparks.

[nitrofarm]

Can you still get it to spark by removing the Dist from the head & spinning by hand like in the vid? That was a good spark. If you still can do this. Then I'm gonna still say you are grounding through the dist housing.