My Datsun Spirit L28 Build.

[Zed Head]

I pulled the coil to dizzy plug wire and laid it against some metal and turned the engine over, and it did not spark one time. When I turned off the key though, it laid out a huge spark...

This is actually a sign that the "breaker" circuit in the Unilite was not being activated. When you turned the key off, the circuit was broken and the coil discharged like it should. You don't need the cap on to get a discharge from the coil (as you saw).

The Unilite is optical so either the "light" never shone on the sensor or it was shining on the sensor but nothing ever blocked it or there was no power to either the light or sensor. I would bet that there was no power to the light and/or sensor. When it's powered correctly I believe that you can even trigger the spark with a piece of paper, sliding it between the light and sensor.

[zKars]

Great point about the manual way to trigger a spark event with paper interrupting the light and sensor. Also don't forget that you take the whole dizzy out of the block and spin the base by hand to test and trigger spark events, you don't have to have the engine cranking or even running to turn it. Keeps things simpler, quicker to test and hopefull stress free! Good luck!

[Matias]

My most sincere thanks!

Tonight was a tale of two stories.

I set out tonight and told my lovely wife to expect some noise out of the garage tonight!!

Well I finished installing the exhaust, tightened up all hangers, then wired up the dizzy, and went to wire up the O2 sensor. Well Murphy struck again.

It would see that since I refused to cut a hole in my new shifter boot, I was left stuck looking for another 'orifice' to stick the ridiculously short O2 sensor through.

You see in Innovative's eternal wisdom they decided to make the O2 sensor as big around as a quarter and the plug on the other end of the wires as big around as a shoebox (mild exaggeration). So I decided to cut all the wires and make a long jumper with bullet connectors for future removal. I also decide to run them through the old choke cable grommet on the firewall.

As my luck is consistent, I ran completely out of my last connector. So now I am not making smoke and fire because of a dumb 2 dollar electrical connector.

I only hope the O2 sensor is not calibrated for a certain length of wire. There is a calibration technique called out in the owners manual for the O2 sensor, so I may do that again.

Question for you: how much space does the sensor require straight outwards from the bung? I already got the bungs welded in the best possible place as far as access is concerned, but I'm a little worried that space might be a problem...

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I will test the dizzy as soon as I can with your advice

I will also take a pic of the O2 sensor as soon as I can

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Mdec

Yes it is that model

I hooked it up again last night

Again zero spark is reaching the plug wires

I tried every conceivable configuration of wiring I found here and in the instructions provided by Mallory

I will begin troubleshooting the ignition module this weekend

[Lazeum]

Don't try with paper, the infra-red laser will go through. I've spend 4hrs to figure this out last July.

Use the rotor lip as a shield instead. To check the module, you don't need to make a spark; you need to make sure tension at the coil drops when the laser is shut.

Do you also have proper tension around the coil as well? Have you also checked the resistance between terminals on your coil?

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I think am running a 3 kOhm coil, but I have a 1.5kOhm coil on the shelf. I spent some time doing musical dizzys when I was chasing my popping issue a while back. So I will have to verify what is in there.

I have not run the basic ignition module test called out online yet. I have to verify the ignition module is not toast first. But after that I will try almost anything. The biggest issue I see around the web is not the voltage supplied to the ignition module (ie red wire), but the rather the power of the spark from the coil that tends to toast it.

I found nothing in the instructions that tell me to run a XX kOhm coil. I did not check to see what Mallory's coil has across it.

[Lazeum]

The coil I'm using with my dizzy is a 1.5kOhm if that could help.

I also have a voltage regulator to protect the dizzy supplied by Mallory. If you don't have one, it is a cheap insurance.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Well I just ran my checkout...

With the ignition module getting 12 volts, and the green wire going straight to the negative side of the coil, and the brown side grounded, I hooked up a voltmeter with the black lead to the engine ground, and the red wire to the negative side of the coil. The positive side is getting 11.99 volts, and the negative side never got above 1.9 volts. According to Mallory this is a failed ignition module, as it is incorrectly charging the coil when it is not suppose to. The instant I unhooked the green Mallory wire to the coil, the voltage across the coil on both sides was basically the battery voltage.. as it should be.

So summit is going to replace it...

Funny thing is the pertronix acted the same exact way. With the pertronix hooked up I was getting the same huge voltage drop across the coil, only the car would start and run just fine. I am thinking that is just an artifact of the Pertronix as it has worked for well over 2 years in this configuration.

OH my coil was 1.5 Ohm as well.

[grannyknot]

Zedyone, I'm sure you have your hands full but there are 100's of us that are just dying to hear this engine roar.

Hope all is going well, if not the trouble shooters are waiting.

Chris

[mdec]

can you tell me what clutch you ended up going with ?

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I have been very busy lately just driving the car. I do owe everybody a video of the car roaring. IT sounds glorious.

I ended up using an OEM 240Z clutch to answer your question...