rchrd989

Well heres the problem, I picked up a 1975 280z for dirt cheap, it doesnt run and the dude had no idea what was wrong with it, he got it not running also... I checked all the fuesable links, they are good, did all the checking with the voltmeter on the ignition control thing on the passenger side, it was all good by what the chilton book said. I have power going to the coil and when the car is turned on the the voltmeter reades 11 point somthin volts at the end of the coil wire, yet when I put a spark plug in there nothin happens, I did all of the tests in the book to see if the pick up coils in the distributer are good and by the tests they are. what else is there to check, I have power coming from the coil but no spark... oh man im confused...

Superduner

Have you changed the sparks?he sparkplugs are BAD then i mean.. oviously there whont make no spark. Thats just a thought. but i hope its that cuz if it's not it WIL be a problem to find what's wrong with the car.

rchrd989

no its not the plugs, right now the distributer isnt in the picture at all, Im testing all the computers and fuesable links, the plugs are brand new, all the tests say everything is good
except theres still no spark

jfairladyz

If you've got voltage to the coil then your problem is really narrowed down to the distributor, ignition module or spark plug wires. I doubt it's the spark plug wires cause the odds of none of them firing are pretty rare. 0 for 6 on the plugs would be pretty rare too. If your pick coil or ignition module take a dump then you aren't going to get any spark. Test those things and see what you get. And dont overlook the wiring either. Check the connections at the coil and ignition module as well. The ECU and all that stuff doesn't have anything to do with spark. And if you've got power to the coil then it's not a power problem either.

rchrd989

yea, i understnad that, but the power from the coil is only around 12 volts, shouldnt the coil boost the voltage? This is with a brand new coil also

jfairladyz

You mean the voltage coming from the coils secondary tower? The one that feeds the distributor? If thats what you're talking about then yeah, it should be WAY above 12 volts. It should be high enough to fry your meter. If you're talking about the primary connections (two smaller wires) then battery voltage is normal. But to catch the coil's secondary voltage the car would actually have to be cranking or running. But then I wouldn't even try to measure that. You can however measure the resistance in the secondary circuit with the ignition off to see if there is a problem with the coil itself.

rchrd989

yea I am talking about the secondary tower, the one that goes directly to the distributer. The coil is brand new so I dont know what going on, what else do you think it could be?

thanks for the help

jfairladyz

Did you measure the resistance of the secondary circuit on the coil? I think it's supposed to be between 8000 and 12000 or something like that. Also check the primary resistance of the coil. 1 ohm or less is the general rule there. Also check your pick up coil for both resistance and voltage output. Use AC when checking the voltage of a pickup coil. If all else fails I'd look into the Ignition module being bad.

rchrd989

well the coil is brand new, and I did all of the tests in the chiltons book, all of the tests that you do at the ignition module, as of right now im thinking about insted of worrying about the original 280Z stuff, why not jus tdo the ZX ignition module and distributer swap? parts would be much easyier and cheaper to find, the junkyards around here dont cary z's just zx'z