Further problems - unable to start- 73' 240z

[mgarcia]

I have tried everything but I cannot get it to start. I attached these pictures to see if someone can tell me what is wrong with my wiring set-up by my coil. My friend moved everything before I could label my wires and it has been a while since we took it apart.

Is there supposed to be a connection fom the resister to the coil?

Thanks for the help in advance

[lonedestiny84]

This happened to me on my 73 recently and even though all lights and cd player came on it turned out to be my battery and its connection.

[SteveInOakland]

I have tried everything but I cannot get it to start. I attached these pictures to see if someone can tell me what is wrong with my wiring set-up by my coil. My friend moved everything before I could label my wires and it has been a while since we took it apart.

Is there supposed to be a connection fom the resister to the coil?

The answer to that is, Not exactly.

See my attached file.

In practice, there is no single, short wire going from the ballast resistor to the coil.

One thing that looks fishy in your photos -- the capacitor deal, up above the coil and mounted to the bracket around the coil -- is wired to the same side of the coil as the wire leading to your distributor.

The capacitor deal should be wired to the + side of the coil. The small wire coming from your distributor should go to the opposite (minus) side of the coil (as in the drawing attached).

Steve.

[Ramses]

Electronic distributor or points?

There is a thread in this section. When I asked for help. I will try to take some photos of my setup today and post them later. I have a 73.

Chuck

[mgarcia]

Electronic distributor or points?

There is a thread in this section. When I asked for help. I will try to take some photos of my setup today and post them later. I have a 73.

Chuck

I have points.

[dogma420]

it would be helpful to know if you're getting spark at the points or at the plugs as well--if you haven't done this, have someone turn over the motor w/ the key and have the dist. cap off and you look at the points--do you see a spark whenever they open up? You can also take out a spark plug and ground against the motor and see if you get a spark.

Spark Yes/No is the first thing we need.

[mgarcia]

it would be helpful to know if you're getting spark at the points or at the plugs as well--if you haven't done this, have someone turn over the motor w/ the key and have the dist. cap off and you look at the points--do you see a spark whenever they open up? You can also take out a spark plug and ground against the motor and see if you get a spark.

Spark Yes/No is the first thing we need.

I have tested the coil and it is good. I am not getting any spark though?

[Maniac]

You aren't getting spark? Well, if the coil tests good, it's time to move further down stream. Looking at your coil to distributor wire, it looks pretty old, I'm guessing you haven't put new plug wires on her in a while?

Keep in mind I don't own a Z, yet, so this may be -way- off base. After looking at pictures, though, they look like standard cap/rotor vacuum advance distributors.

Try this, pull the distributor cap and disconnect the coil, have a friend crank the motor. The rotor on the distributor should spin freely as the motor cranks over. Check the rotor to make sure the contact on the end of it is still attached, in fact, check all the contacts in there. They should be shiney and nothing should look broken. If in doubt, replace! Rotors and Caps aren't particularly hard to do and, for most cars, aren't super expensive.

Take the wire that connects to the cap and ignition coil, grab a multitester (cheap at radioshack) and measure it's resistance. Should be minimal! If nothing registers, then the wire is broke, and needs replacing. The wires in the pictures look pretty old, so that might not be a bad idea anyway (the coil->cap wire should come in the full spark plug wire kit).

Last, but not least, if the plugs are old, get new ones!

Ok, I was wrong, this is the last. Make sure the spark plug wires are connected in the right order. Trust me, this is easy to do, especially if you think "that can never happen to me", because trust me, it can! :paranoid:

[SteveInOakland]

You aren't getting spark? Well, if the coil tests good, it's time to move further down stream. Looking at your coil to distributor wire, it looks pretty old, I'm guessing you haven't put new plug wires on her in a while?

Maniac makes some good points.

However -- two things. If there is no spark at his points, the condition of his plug wires is not a factor (they may be bad, but even if he replaces them, the car won't run with no spark). He does need to have the wires on the right plugs, but again, he has to have spark.

Second, the original poster states his coil is good, but he does not state that it is producing current or voltage. If in fact his coil is good, if I were the OP, I'd be looking upstream. I would see if any voltage is coming into the coil.

Checking whether the wires run to the right cylinders would be a good first move though -- maybe in fact there is spark -- and it takes no work at all to double-check as to the wires and firing order.

Steve.

[Arne]

Looking at the pictures, and gathering from this and other threads that all the stuff has been hooked up from scratch, my first step would be to use a multi-meter to verify that the wires to the coil and ballast resistor are correct. Especially checking the polarity on the coil itself. If the + and - terminals are reversed on the coil, or mixed up with the ballast resistor wires...