On a 1978 280Z.

I just had a professional mechanic service my car because I tried to put on a new set of ignition wires ( spark plug wires) and I couldn't get the bloody thing to start! I got out my Haynes book, and looked up the firing order and the picture of the dizzy cap, and hooked it all up according to that information. It didn't start. Then I took it all off and did it again with the same results. I even put a dab of paint on the #1 tower.

After a few attempts I got out my FSM, and looked up the dizzy stuff. It had the exeact same picture of the dizzy cap, and the firing order. It still didn't start.

Finally I decided to get the pro guy to look at it. It turned out that the picture of the dizzy in both manuals had the #1 spark plug tower on the opposite side of the cap! In the pictures, the #1 tower is at about the 3- o'clock position, and the tech guy said it was supposed to be at the 9- o'clock position.

I'm getting a new cap & rotor, and a coil, so I'll transfer the corrected positions of things to the new parts. I'm also going to draw pictures into my Haynes book and the FSM.

You'd think that the FSM would at least have things right.

thxZ

Edited August 15, 200816 yr by TomoHawk

The simplest way to tackle this task is to remove and replace one lead at a time or take some photos of things before you begin.

I had a look in my factory manuals and I can't see what your referring to. Can you advise as to which books/pages your looking at?

The distributor may not be clocked correctly with the drive gear. That would put the rotor in the wrong place according to the manual. Dig deeper into the distributor installation procedure and I'll bet the FSM really is correct.

Steve

Edited August 15, 200816 yr by doradox

I took a quick glance through the FSM and couldn't locate where you got that info but that's just one of those things that if you've worked on these cars enough, you'd know. We even did a thread sometime back that showed the correct positions.

Doradox, you've hit the nail on the head! The rotor button is 180 degrees out of phase with the factory set position.

At some stage the distributor has been pulled down and rebuilt? with the spindle shaft rotated 180 degrees. Regardless, the engine will run without hiccup if the leads are positioned to account for this.

Like I said before, replace one lead at a time and you would never have known any different.

PS Don't tear out those pages!!!!:cheeky:

The only issues I have found with FSMs have been addressed with either technical Bulletins, and/or Chassis Supplements...

WIll

Though, there was a haynes manual that listed the wrong firing order, which was corrected in later manuals.

I had this same problem on an old engine. When the engine was rebuilt the technician put the gear in 180 degrees out of alignment. I had a hell of a time starting the car until one of my buddies suggested that it might be off. We swapped the firing order and it started right up... In my case, it was the fault of the engine builder. Maybe he was looking at the engine upside down when he looked at the rebuild instructions?

Well, I think I'll get my dizzy gear & rotor checked when I get the chance, and correct it, if need be. In the meantime, I still have an engine that runs.

I

thxZ

You had an engine that ran before you pulled the old wires off. Marking the cap with #1 when it ran would have been a good idea before removing them. If you're unsure of things like that you probably shouldn't attempt it unless you like paying 'professional mechanics' to do something you could have done yourself.

The distributor cap was marked before I swapped the wires.

Changing one wire at a time was not the thing to do because none of the new wires were numbered, nor were any of them the same length as the old ones, which weren't the right lengths to begin with. I took all the wires off because I had to see which of the new ones was the right length.

Edited August 15, 200816 yr by TomoHawk

The distributor cap was marked before I swapped the wires.

Changing one wire at a time was not the thing to do because none of the new wires were numbered, nor were any of them the same length as the old ones, which weren't the right lengths to begin with. I took all the wires off because I had to see which of the new ones was the right length.

If the cap was marked correctly and you swapped the wires by puting #1 where you had it marked and followed the firing order from there, I don't see why you would have had a problem, but, obviously, you did. Hence my statement:

If you're unsure of things like that you probably shouldn't attempt it unless you like paying 'professional mechanics' to do something you could have done yourself.

Okay, now throw in your 'last word' type comment here as you usually do but my point still stands.