Ignition problems....car dies

[Murph]

It never ends...

Today I decided to check the ignition timing and points on my 260Z. The point looked reasonable, but the gap was somewhat tight, so I set it to 0.45mm as the manual says. Ignition timing was a little more advanced than the factory spec 10deg, so I corrected that.

Took it for a drive and it felt fine lower down, but was missing up in the revs.

Took it home, rechecked the points gap and put the ign timing where it was.

Wouldn't start.

Checked everything a million times...wouldn't start.

Later had a play again, then it did start. Still missing up in the revs.

So went and bought myself

-Bosch GT40R

-New points

-New dizzy cap (the posts in the old one looked pretty bad)

-New rotor

Interestingly there were two condensers. One in the normal stop on the dizzy and one on the coil itself, connecting to the +ve terminal. I removed this one.

Chucked it all in, set the points gap and she fired straight up, nice and smoooooth. Cool. Took it for a drive, no miss....all good. On my way home after ~5min of driving it just died and wouldn't restart. I suspected a clogged fuel pick up as the tank was pretty low.

Put some more fuel in...wouldn't start.

Pushed it home...

Check for fuel problems, fuel bowls full, pull the line at the fuel rail and the elec pump is pushing PLENTY of fuel....no problems here.

Checked the points gap....it had closed down a little, but not that much.....reset it. Started fine. Cool. Took if for a drive, this time staying close to home. After 2min of driving.....died.....roll in the driveway.

Took it home. Check everything again. Reattach 2nd conderser is case it was needed for some reason...

Started fine.....sounds sort of uneven at idle though. Took it for a drive....this time about 1 min then died.....roll in the driveway again....lucky.

Left it a few min....car starts....just....but is very rough. Leave it a few more minutes....idles fine misses when you rev it. A few more minute, almost fine again.

Someone HELP! It's driving me batty!

I'm 100% certain I've hooked everything up as it was, although it could have been wrong to start with....there's some dodgy dodgy wiring in my car.

[Murph]

I just cleaned up the end of the ground lead that hooks to the points assemby. It seemed pretty clean already though.

Took it for a drive...bit lumpy at idle and in the mid range, but didn't die on my in 5min of driving up and down my street (the neighbours will love me ). Took it a bit further away and gave it a good hit, felt strong till it got up in the revs where it was missing again quite badly. Same as before I replaced everything.

What's the actual effect to of the points gap being too big or too small?

[Murph]

Fixed!

Replaced the condenser. That was the only thing I hadn't originally replaced. Mind you I couldn't get the old one off. That screw is solidly corroded into place. I've just mounted it to another part of the dizzy.

[Murph]

Reffering back to the begining of my original post....I was right:

Originally posted by Datto-Zed

It never ends...

The f*cker is still misfiring. Now at least it's only when over 5000rpm. In general the car feels a little dull, doesn't have a nice sharp induction note to it or it's usual sharp throttle response. F*ucker.

Any ideas?

P.S. Yes...I am in a filthy filthy mood atm.

[260DET]

Dear oh dear, I'd say fluck it and have a beer, or two. Come back tomorrow.

Sounds more like fuel to me. When it next stops check how much petrol is actually in a carbie.

[Murph]

Fuel was fine the other day when having problems. Took it for a drive a few min ago and it's not misfiring anymore. Who knows.

It was running a little hot this avo, so may have had something to do with that maybe. Who knows. Too many variables. Gotta adjust my valve clearances again....one of the them is a little noisy again.