No spark

[cegrover]

Hi All:

I have a '75 280Z that recently had engine-out body and paint and I'm trying to get it running now that everything is back in place.

At first it wouldn't crank, and I traced that to a connector installed incorrectly. Now it's cranking, but I have no spark. Here's where I am:

1) Have tested with in-line spark tester and there is no spark at any plug and doesn't appear to be any at coil

2) Followed FSM guidelines for ignition system checking and everything was fine until I found a 'no go' result on the pick-up coil (involved testing wires at the transistor ignition box)

3) Replaced pick-up coil

4) Still have no go result on it

5) Have checked all the connectors I can find, as well as fuses and fusible links.

Am I missing something obvious? I'm hoping someone has done this before...

[Zed Head]

12 volts to the coil and the tachometer hooked up? I am not very good with wiring but I think that the tachometer is part of the ignition circuit, the ground from the coil runs through it to the ignition relay (Page BE-33 in the 1976 FSM [i don't have the page in the 1975 manual]). Just a possibility, if you're trying to start the car but you have the insides torn up.

I tried to start mine once with the tach out and broke a sweat for about 5 seconds until I remembered reading about it.

[cegrover]

I'm closing another loop on an old thread - this was traced to incorrect pickup coil wiring. When my body shop re-installed my stock engine, they swapped a wire in the distribution block near the coil.

If you have your engine out, make sure you take good pictures for reference! Mine was out twice and I didn't get all the baseline shots I should have before the body shop removed the stock engine. So, when I took "before" shots to swap in my stroker, my baseline was wrong...