L-16 Tune-up won't run right...

[Figbuck]

Yeah I'd slap another set of points/condensor on there (they go bad often and sometimes are crap off the shelf) 

 

 

Where are you getting your points from?  I've bought points from autozone and o'rileys and have had problems with both.  I even tried more expensive points from there and the quality is still below standard.  When I was driving my 620 daily, I always had issues with points.  I've even stuck a new set in and it would barely run. 

 

 Well, just for laughs, swapped an oddball I had laying around, problem fixed. 

 

Points, condensers can be very frustrating at times and you think nothing about them when they work right, and in a split second can leave you fighting to get your car home.

 

I got the point sets from Discount Import Parts on Hall Blvd & Scholls Ferry because I was over there. Usually I go to Carquest, because they have Datsun/Nissan info on their computers, name brands and if they don't have it in stock can get it in a couple hours. 

 

Whenever I have had problems like this, it was almost always points.  

 

 

 

 

I was just about to go over to the "Barn" and dig into the mess... but it started raining. So I began to read the thread that Daniel posted up. I got about half way through it then thought...

 

Nice garage that you can leave stuff all torn up, nice lights, nice boxes of tools... nice that you have spares... especially the spare truck.  I remember those days, before fun was cancelled. I bet y'all can see too... or at least... you wear glasses that let you see. I'm so beyond broke that I can't even pay attention... let alone get glasses. 

 

But there is something else going on that I don't really understand. For the last few weeks, almost every single thing I have tried to do is booby trapped and just blows up in my face. It's not that bad, but kinda like two things will go right and then poof five things don't. I can't even make coffee right... burned out the coffee maker, because somehow grounds got in the place you put the water. I have made coffee every day for years the same way, doing the same things. Why now? 

 

 

this is a simple fix.

YOur just missing something

 

I just don't know what I'm missing. 

 

Maybe it's some kind of cosmic message... a cosmic tap on the shoulder. When I went to start my wife's car, to take her to work so I could use it... the battery was dead. A client of her's gave us bags of apples and I got them out of the back seat yesterday. I remember slamming the door, but it didn't close and the dome light ran the battery down. What a hassle to get it jumped. should have pushed the truck over to it, but It seemed easier to run an extension cord and jump it off my battery charger. Wrong. Why should that even be a problem... don't ask.

 

She said, you know if there is a message here, it's that you are not meant to go anywhere... you keep trying to get going , but you just keep being shot down.  

 

When things get like this and I feel stuck... I just want to work flat out until I drop, exhaust every option, so I know that I gave it my best effort. 

 

But there is another option. Do nothing. I forget that one. Sometime as soon as you give up... the solutions are revealed.

 

I said fuck it, take the car to work. I feel snake bit... no emotional energy to fight this out. I don't feel like dragging a mountain of crap out into the rain and rummage through stuff. I don't see why this won't run just the way it is!

 

When she left, I got two pairs of dollar store glasses and a work lamp. I noticed that the points had moved closed again. That didn't seem right, so I looked very closely and found that the points were not sitting flat on the vac advance plate. There is a hole in the plate where the hinge for the spring is pressed through the point's bracket... and the little nub that protrudes, fits into the hole to sort of index the location of the point's bracket, so that it pivots for adjustments with the locking screw.

 

I took a micrometer to the 'nub' of both new points and read .154" 

 

I measured the nub on the points that failed and read .145"

 

 

Whoops!  The new ones were just too big to sit securely in the index hole on the vac advance plate!!!

 

It sort of felt like it fit in the hole. Enough so that I felt it go into the hole... I thought!  

 

As I looked closer, I could see that the point's bracket was still "up in the air", being held away from resting completely on the Vac/Adv plate. As I cranked on the point adjustment screw, it bent the point's bracket every so slightly. Enough for them bind & not work... then move out of adjustment... as the dist. shaft rotated.

 

 

I stuck the old fucked up point set with the broken off contact back on just now. Gapped it with my one good eyeball and...

 

IT FIRED RIGHT OFF.

 

 I reached in and hit the key, didn't even push the gas to turn the choke on or squirt some gas on it. I went right to idle. Bang. 

 

I thought... all I have to do is hog the little hole out a bit and they will fit right in there... nah, just bit too ghetto even for me.

 

 

Think I should take the points back to Discount Import Parts? Nine bucks! Nine bucks that I didn't have in the first place. 

 

  

   

Thanks for the help and moral support everybody. Daniel thanks for posting all that info. I will find a place better than the wet street or dark carport to work on the matchbox swap.

 

 Let's see... what was I doing four days ago... before I got sidetracked with this BS.

[DanielC]

So glad it's running again.

 

Every ignition system I know of works in the same way.  There is a coil, or coils, that have battery power applied to them.  There is a switch, that grounds the coil, or coils, that is opened when a spark plug is needed to fire.

The switch could be a set pf points, or a "matchbox" being controlled by a pckup in a distributor, it could be a computer controlling a "black box" that switches off individual coils on a "coil on plug" system.

 

Two things have to happen to get a good spark.  The "switch" has to make good contact.  the "switch" has to disconnect at the right time.

 

I believe points are still available at your friendly neighborhood Nissan dealer.  Gladstone Nissan give a discount to Ratsun members.

The quality and fit of Nissan parts is way better than aftermarket stuff, most of the time.  Nissan points may cost a little more, but what is three or four days of frustration worth?

 

I would be glad to help you do a matchbox swap, if you are so inclined.

[KlassicMotion]

I would be glad to help you do a matchbox swap, if you are so inclined.

 

:thumbup:

 

This is one of those battles that would make me throw in the towel on the points distributor and just go matchbox, especially if you have one in the garage.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Should take advantage of Daniel matchbox swap.

Moving to a pointless ignition is the best move one can make. Point suck if your not familiar with them and have more parts to wear out.

 

Told ya it was a simple fix.

I know from experience these are bad.

once to pointless a diszzy cap and rotor will last for over 5 years. I havenet change my dizzy cap in over 8(copper contack)

[Figbuck]

Simple fix. Ha.

 

No, you have to preface it with that four letter word JUST. As in, JUST go matchbox!

 

 

30 years of contracting and building shit, every time I heard the word JUST, I knew I was in trouble. It's a simple fix, just...

 

 

just paint over it, just cut in a new outlet there, just run your new ductwork, wiring, piping through the joist bays... Just shim it! Yeah right...

 

Nothing is ever easy anymore... 

 

 

If it was easy then I would have been a thousand miles from here a week ago. 

 

 

 

 

This morning, I took the points back to Discunt Import Autocrap. The guy said he had a different brand and could have them in a couple hours.

 

I went to Beaverton Nissan and ask the parts guy... 1973 L16, points.

 

He ask me, "What is an L 16?"  I knew I was in trouble when he didn't know what an L engine was.

 

Then I wondered how long I would stand there before he got up and went in back to ask somebody what a Datsun was.  It only took him 2 minutes.  Then an older guy came out and they searched for parts numbers under L20B, couldn't find the part in the schematics. What ever data base they have sucks. When they finally found them, they were NOT AVAILABLE.

 

I wish I would have had a video of the next ten minutes... we would be laughing our asses off!! 

 

They did find me a gasket for the matchbox dist. for $1.78. It's coming from Sacramento in two days. (Excremento as my friend Paul calls it)

 

It all started to come back to me. For years and years, I could get any little part, gasket or grommet from the dealer... but NOT NO MO!! They said five years is the new cutoff point pretty much. Any old stuff is just sitting on a shelf and then that's it.

 

In my way back, the engine stalling every block and running out of time, the guy called me, the points were in. These looked like the OEM points I had been running. The first set he got me, the post that the spring is hinged on was pressed on and the OEM post has a cir-clip holding the spring on. You could see that the little nub or tang that indexes the point bracket was smaller too.

 

Great! This will be simple! I'll JUST slap these points on and it will run great again. Simple fix!

 

The slot where the set screw slides for adjustment was covering the threaded hole in the vac/adv plate. I had to take a file and remove a few mm. to let the bracket swivel freely for adjustment.

 

Fired it up and it won't idle. No amount of point gap or timing adjustment would make it idle. It runs at about 11 or 12 hundred rpm, but stalls below that. It looks like the points bracket is not in the same location as the OEM ones. 

 

 

So Daniel. I know you mean well, and I bet you honestly think that it wouldn't be that be that big a deal. I'm going to do you a big favor and let you off the hook on this one. Trust me, you don't want to get sucked into this. It won't be easy. Nothing is easy anymore. Plus, I don't have any money and I dumped the spare gallon of gas I carry in it to got home. 

 

If I think back a few years to before I got these matchbox distributers, I was looking at using a Pertronix set-up. In the end, there was some reason that it wouldn't work on my dual point... I needed a single point.

 

There was also a problem with the transmission switches. How do you work that out? Disconnect both of them? I don't remember you dealing with any of that in your write-up??  

[wayno]

The transmission switches are deleted Figbuck, they only work on the stock dual point distributor.

Put the matchbox distributor in your truck with an electronic ignition coil.

Here is how it is wired.

[banzai510(hainz)]

still simple fix.

Dont make it harder than it is.

 

 

Nissan is full of different people now Only soem timers might know now or us Ratsun guys.

The Jap Bosche seriies points should fit as I use to run those and had not proplems with them.

 

if one runs the main set of points the one next to the motor with the big cendensor and not run the 2nd set this automatically eliminates the 3 rd gear swith set up no dont worry about that.

 

If Daniel can put a Matchbox in for you and see run then go for it. If dont run pull it back out. abaout a 20min job if that.

[DanielC]

The offer still stands on helping you install the Matchbox distributor.

 

For the second set of points to work on a 521, you need the two switches in the transmission, two more on the stock carb, and the clutch and gas pedal switch on the firewall.  The second retarded set of points only function in third gear, at part throttle, without any pressure on the clutch pedal, and with the gas pedal off idle.  If you have a Weber carb on your truck, or put in a five speed, or obviously the Matchbox distributor, the system is defeated.   

 

Autoparts stores are different.  Different chains of autoparts stores have a different focus.  Different dealer also have a different focus.  I too have stopped by Beaverton Nissan looking for parts for my old Datsun.   Lets just say, the parts department at both Tonkin Nissan, and Gladstone Nissan are more helpful.  I mentioned before, Gladstone Nissan even give a discount to Ratsun members.

The truth is, the Nissan dealer probably does not make any money on old Datsun parts.   In fact, when it takes five or ten minutes to look up the part, find the superseded part number or numbers, and then contact the Nissan warehouse, and then find the part is NLA, that lose their butt financially.

Gladstone, and Tonkin have chosen to help us with our old Datsuns.  Others, not so much.  Baxters auto parts have given discounts to Northwest Z's, and to Datsuns NW.

Oregon City Auto parts in downtown Oregon City is good with old cars.  If you walk into a auto parts store, and you see lots of displays of spoilers, fender flares, and fart cannon muffler tips, you might be in the wrong store for old Datsun parts

[banzai510(hainz)]

I worke on a 520 with J motor once

It would not have spark. I cked things out then find out it would get spark with dizzy cap off. put cap on it would loose spark from the center coil wire. the points were working but grounding out where the wire went to the little connector. Re isolated that then you would get spark with cap on and started right up.

[Figbuck]

I have wasted more days than I can even believe trying to find points that work.

 

 

Now I have burned most of today trying to install an EI distributor, and the truck still doesn't run. I guess I haven't got to the EASY part yet.

 

 

I turned the crank pulley until the timing mark was on Zero. (When I built the engine, I made sure that the timing chain was indexed to the right number on the cam gear)

 

I pulled the valve cover to make sure that the #1 cam lobes were @ ten and two o'clock.

 

 

I noticed that the existing distributor's rotor was pointing to the #1 plug wire @ the bottom front. So that when I unbolted it... I found the drive shaft oriented 11:25... with the large off-set part of the key to the rear of the engine.

 

 

 

I can only put the distributor on one way or else the Vac/Adv hits the coolant hose/neck.

 

 

 

The rotor points to a place in between #2 and #4... not towards the #1 plug... or what used to be #1.

 

If I loosen both adjustment bolts and rotate the distributor as far as possible...   the reluctor lines up with a stator position. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This doesn't seem right. But couldn't I call which ever plug is at TDC, #1 and base the firing order off that counter-clock-wise? Even though there is no more adjustment? 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two tangs on the Matchbox. Which one is B and C? I'm basically familiar with the alphabet... I bet it would be EASY... if there were letters marked on it somewhere. 

 

 

 

What happens to to the existing wiring? Cut if off anywhere,,, don't do anything to it... ground it out... tape it up??

[Figbuck]

I have been searching and reading much the same stuff over and over. I just found this thread and it seem to address my problem...  

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/30204-matchbox-distributer-questions/

 

Do I understand that because the distributor came off a L20...  now the distributor drive gear needs to be moved to get the #1 plug to be the same as before?

[KlassicMotion]

C is your blue wire to the negative side of the coil, B is your black/white wire to the positive side of your coil. My factory ignitor has the labels/markings yours is missing...

 

To answer your other question, if I remember right, when you remove the ballast resistor, both those wires now go to the positive side of the coil.

 

 

More resources for you:

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/17444-electronic-ignitions-for-l-motors-4-cyl/

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20050312092651/home.att.net/~jason510/Dizzy_FAQ.htm

[DanielC]

I put a matchbox on the engine that came in Dragon 2 today.  It is a L-18, and has different timing marks, but the theory is the same.

First, when assembling an engine, TDC #1 is important.  But the engine does not fire at TDC.  It fires before that.

This method works for me.

When installing a distributor, you need to turn the engine to the point the engine fires, not TDC.  I set the engine about 12 degrees before TDC.

 

When I did that, this is where the drive spindle for the distributor ended up.

 

And when I put the matchbox distributor on, I had the same problem you had.  The rotor pointed between 2 and 4, like yours.  The solution is to drop the oil pump, and reindex the distributor drive spindle. 

 

This is how to reindex the drive spindle.

Put the distributor on the engine, it does not matter for now where the rotor points we will change that.  Center both adjustments on the distributor clocking plate.  With the distributor on the engine decide on where Number one spark plug wire will be.  I chose this one.

 

Make a mark on the distributor body below number one tower.  This is where you want the rotor to point, eventually.

 

Take the distributor off the engine, and turn the rotor to point at the mark you made.  Carefully look at the bottom of the distributor drive slot, and see how it is oriented, and that will be the new position of the oil pump drive spindle.

Take the four bolts out of the oil pump, and drop it out of the engine, with the spindle.   Turn the spindle, in the oil pump to the new position.  Oil will come out of the pump.  Slide the drive spindle back up into the front cover, and see if it will line up on the distributor, with the rotor pointing at number one tower.  You may have to make a few tries to get it to line up properly.  My spindle ended up like this, with the engine at 12 degrees before TDC.

 

After I did all that, the distributor rotor points to the tower in the above picture, with my finger, with the spikes in the distributor lined up exactly, and the engine at 12 before TDC.

 

If you look straight down the electrical connector, the vertical leg of the "T" is the "B" terminal.  it has the thicker wire.  The top of the "T"  is the "C" terminal.

[KlassicMotion]

 

 

Am I correct on the Ballast wires^^?  I can't remember for sure and I don't want to unwrap my harness...

[DanielC]

If you use the stock 521 coil, with ballast resistor, you still need the ballast resistor.

This is a diagram on how I wired Ratsun with a stock coil, ballast resistor, and a matchbox distributor.

[KlassicMotion]

Ok, yes I got that.

 

I guess somewhere I go off track and assumed he was putting in the later "12v" coil, which would give him a stronger spark and full benifit of the e.i. distributor.

 

I'm pretty sure I just found verification that if you are eliminating the ballast and going with the "12v" coil, you do put both ballast wires over to the positive side of the coil, although one of them is redundant; since the wire already on the positve side of the coil is a pig-tail from the ballast wire.

[DanielC]

If you use a coil that does not need a ballast resistor, you can connect the wires together.

On a stock 521, the black with white wire is switched power, with the key in the run position.  The black with red wire is hot when the key is in the crank position, only.  Power is still supplied to the black with white wire when cranking.

 

This bypasses the ballast resistor when cranking, for a stronger spark when starting.

[KlassicMotion]

Cool thanks.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Figbuck

 

If you got a mtchbox from soembody it would be best to get the whole unite as a SET with THE PEDASTAL TIMMING PLATE AND THE DIZZY. Most likely you got a mismatched set as there where 2 matchbox types. that use different pedastals.

You might use your pedastal and get a differnt dizzy. this is why is come out inbetween the 1 & 3 position. when at TDC. to make this work you drop the pump and move in the direction you need to go use your cap as a reference.

 

Or if you just want to see if this starts. unscrew the 10mm bolt turn the dizzy to #1 plug wire and it should be close enought to start. and use a mini c clamp to hold it down to you can understand this better.

 

also you can rotate the dizzy 180 so the vacuum advance is in a different spot by rotate the peadastal on the from cover 180 and see if it fits better or have more space.

 

 

as for using the stock coil and ballastjust hook up B to the Blk wht wire that goes in to the ballast. You need to buy a piggy back jumper to plug in the ballast(so no need to cut the stock wires) so you will have 2 wires going to this spot. the neg side youll remove the point wire and just use C of the matchbox.

 

1/2 hr job

 

[Figbuck]

Fuck I wish I would have watched that the first part last week. I did a bunch of searches, even YouTube searches and that clip didn't pop up. I remember watching it a long time ago on the NWDE site.

 

I'm sorry if I seem to have a bad attitude... I just have a bad attitude. I wish wrenching on my truck was fun, but is just isn't right now. Fun would have looked like me tuning up my truck up then driving it another 15K miles before it needed attention. Fun would look like me sitting on the the top of the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca watching World Superbike qualifying and drinking cold beer... right now, this afternoon and Saturday and Sunday too for the races. Dream on. I'm so beyond broke that I don't have gas so, it's ironic that it didn't run anyway. 

 

I am glad that I finally got my own thinking straightened out... or remembered what I already knew... so I could get it running finally. Thanks again for all your help. Now that I have done it and can visualized how it's supposed to work, I could do it in 20 minutes no problem. It's not that I can't do it or understand how to do it. I don't want to work on it. I want to drive it. 

 

No problem...except that the two bolts at the back of the valve cover decided to give up on the "new" head, so I had to fix them. Oil has been leaking all over my otherwise clean engine. What a mess. I've never cranked down on the valve cover bolts. Don't need to if the gasket is right. Whoever had this head before me must not have thought so. That pretty much burned a days worth of easy.

 

 

 

 

Then the front bolt on the oil pump was a bitch to get out too, I thought it was going to strip... I had one of those oh no it's just spinning moments, where your stomach feels like you just jumped off a cliff. It was really dry and crusty, it wouldn't come out of the pump housing either... I was laying in the nasty carport, with a flash light, hands covered in oil. It's cold and wet, I have no bench, vice, hammer. I had one of those flashbacks of frustration to when I was 16 years old working on roached VWs... I hit it the corroded bolt with a 3/8" socket wrench... couldn't help myself. Fuck it didn't come out either. Oh well, that's it, no more. That is even too ghetto for me. I cleaned the other three bolts and chased all the holes as best I could. I remember using lots of anti-seize lube on everything when I put it together... but that was around 60K miles ago. 

 

I can't help it. I have to clean shit up before I can work on it. Yeah it takes ten minutes to unbolt something and bolt it in the reverse direction of dis-assembly... but it takes a half an hour to clean parts, then clean tools and yourself. It just goes against the grain to put the oil pump back on and know what a sleazy job I did and I just don't care. I don't want to be here doing this.

 

 

Another small problem that took me a minute to solve, was that I needed two hands to re-index the oil pump/dist drive shaft. Another person to help would have been way too easy. The pump/dist drive falls down, but the gear stops it from falling out. That is a good thing. But as you shove the top of the shaft back into the dist. housing and engage the teeth, it doesn't want to stay there by itself. If you had another hand to hold it for you, then you could test fit the distributor, to see which gear tooth you need to be on. Easy.

 

I did pretty much as Daniel described, I put the distributor onto the timing cover with both the adjustments set in the middle, crank pulley on 12 degrees. I turned the rotor until it pointed to the front plug wire, to use it as my #1. I pulled it out, looked up inside to see which way the key was oriented.

 

To get the tang on the drive shaft oriented where I wanted it, I pushed the shaft up until the teeth engaged. Then took a rag and stuffed it up into the bottom of the timing cover, so it would jam up long enough for me to get up and look at the distributor tang on top. Between looking up inside at the where the distributor key points, and down at where the the tang is, you can get an idea the direction you need to go. About the second time you move a tooth, you should get how much more it needs to rotate.  This is a crappy oic looking down on the top of the timing cover... there are pretty large skips in each detent of the crank worm gear... I just started on one, then kept spinning it in the same direction until it got it. I needed to go about 180 degrees. Finally I grabbed the distributor tang lightly with a small vice-grip. (the extra hand) 

 

 

Then I looked underneath, and up to see which way the oil pump key is now oriented,  The easiest thing to do is is turn the pump over and drain the oil right away. You are going to have to handle the pump a few times, Better to have the oil mostly out of it. Look down inside the pump, take a screwdriver to spin the drive so they will mate up, when you place the pump up into the timing cover. You might have to wiggle the pump a bit to get the tang engaged. Then clean every thing up, deal with the gasket or not. I poured a little fresh oil into the pump when it finally fit and I was going to install it. 

 

 

It fired right off, but wouldn't idle. I went back to a step I missed. I try not to change to many things all at once. I don't know anything about this distributer, except it seems pretty clean, unmolested. I assumed that the truck I got it out of was a runner.  It looked wrecked-bad, not dead 'cus it was blowed-up. The stator was not really on center to the casual eyeball. So I took a feeler and dialed it in pretty easily.

 

Now it fired and revved pretty good, but still wouldn't idle. I put a timing light on it and could see it was a bit advanced and that the mark would advance with the throttle. The Vad/Adv seems to work. When I plugged it off the light it sat right at 12 degrees, I had to bump the idle a bunch to get it to run. As I retarded it a bit, the idle came down enough to idle high and run. I took it for a test spin.

 

The first thing I noticed is great throttle response. I think the advance curve is way different too. The way it revs is more positive, Before it seemed like it was working really hard to hit five plus thousand RPM. Now it just spins away, Pretty cool. It is making power and pulling strong through the midrange in 3rd and 4th going up hills.

 

I was going to run out of gas so I came back. It still feels like it is missing, or there is a stumble just off idle... and the same thing going on just off of trailing throttle. The idle is still too high too. There is still some tweaking to do. 

 

I'm dead broke. I needed to be somewhere else two weeks ago and I'm still not there yet. It's a contributing factor to the cronic brokeness.

 

It just kills me to look under the hood. There are wires disconnected and taped-up shit everywhere. Driving in the rain with defroster and headlights, I hit the windshield wipers and they barely work. I want to swap in another alternator and rewired this thing so fucking bad... but I'm sitting here watching it start to pour down rain. Love to work on it... just not in a carport. I need to pull my camper shell off and RTV the gaskets so it doesn't leak. I haven't had a horn for 15 years or a windshield washer. I got all the stuff in boxes in the "barn". But no real desire to go thorough all the other crap it takes to get this easy stuff done.

 

The next thing to do is get the right coil. 

[KlassicMotion]

Progress at least :thumbup:  We're there with you in spirt.... if that helps.

[strokerbobber]

hate to steal your topic but i am nearly having the same problem and need help as well..i have the mallory dual point distributor with vacuum advance i swapped the carb to a newer weber,and put new plugs ngkbr6's at .32 gap and new msd wires and new cap and rotor button but still act likes it runs on two cylinders..tried moving distributor back and forth and nothing unhooked vacuum and no different either..these points have not adjustment at all the vacuum advance screws are in the middle which hold them still so does anyone runs one of these distributors can help me out..

[KlassicMotion]

hate to steal your topic but i am nearly having the same problem and need help as well..i have the mallory dual point distributor with vacuum advance i swapped the carb to a newer weber,and put new plugs ngkbr6's at .32 gap and new msd wires and new cap and rotor button but still act likes it runs on two cylinders..tried moving distributor back and forth and nothing unhooked vacuum and no different either..these points have not adjustment at all the vacuum advance screws are in the middle which hold them still so does anyone runs one of these distributors can help me out..

 

I think I would start your own topic with the heading something like "Troubles with Mallory dual point distrubutor".  You will get the attention of other people running that distributor.  And now that you've posted here, I'm sure most eveyone following this one will come over and check out your post...

[Figbuck]

Huh? No adjustment on the points? Good luck on that. Sound like a classic case of bolt a bunch of shit on and hope it works.

 

I'm looking at the schematic for my truck and see not only transmission switches but sensors and relays for emission stuff. All my stuff is there stock... except now I have a matchbox wired directly to the coil. There are switches hooked up to things in the rat's nest of vacuum hoses for the smog stuff. 

 

Is there a thread that talks specifically about how to strip all the smog stuff off of an L16 or any L engines??

 

What happens to all the circuits that run the choke and other relays on the stock carb? I'm sure I will have to find out when I go to re-wire the alternator. 

 

 

 

I called Beaverton Nissan to see if I could get the coil for the 200SX/720 L20B engine with EI... $123.00... there is one in stock in Nashville.

 

I want to get a new one... unless someone has a spare they want to give me?? What brand should I be after? I can find coils online from $28 to $80. I can't find a Bosch that seems to work for '80 720 or 200sx L20b. 

 

I can ride my bicycle if I need to to get to Carquest or Napa... if these are my choices which one? Or what is the hot-set-up that I need to get that's some how better than these. I can't buy online... if I can find some money, one of these seem like the path of least resistance. 

 

http://www.carquest.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_CARQUEST+Ignition+Coils+By+Wells__10151_-1_10651_125605_30643?acesApp=1

 

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Result.aspx/Datsun-200SX-1980/_/Ntt-coil/Ntk-Keyword/Nty-1/N-599001%20101980%2050018%204294941745%202018008%204282752216/Ne-603943

[banzai510(hainz)]

Figbuck if our ignition is working now and have the stock coil and ballast just run that its OK. spark plugs and cap last alot longer. No need to spend money .

 

once you put a matchbox in you bypassed alot of the switches for emissions. But they are still there just dont worry about them till its running all good.

 

as for the IR alternator just use the external type and odnt need to worry about the choke staying on and running out the bayttery. I still run the old volt reg and alternators.