Spark, Parklights & Dash, Oh My...

[blur35mm]

7/72 Manual 240Z with an L28 engine that was running before an extensive 4 year restoration.  I have searched the forums & Internet extensively and not had any luck.
I have studied several FSM & Electrical diagrams with no luck.

 

SPARK

1.  Points distributor, new starter, new ignition coil (built in resistor), new rotor, new cap, new ICM, new plug wires, new spark plugs, vac lines hooked up.  When key is in ON position I am getting power to the coil.  When I turn the key to start, the starter turns the engine over but I am not getting any spark.  Fuel pump is working fine and getting fuel to carbs.  I am getting power to the coil and if I attach a temp bare wire and tap it sparks.  At the coil, I have the black wire with extra loom wrap and green/white wire temporarily fused together and triple checked the C/B distributor wires going to neg/pos properly.  There was no external resistor when car was running previously.  I have even tried replacing all the original parts and still no spark.  The two grounds in engine bay harness are clean and hooked up properly to body in proper locations.  I have the distributor coil plug removed in the photo so you can see the wires.

 

 

2.  When the car was running previously, there was no condenser attached to the coil (should there be for an L28?)

 

3.  At the ignition key rear plug, I noticed the Green/White wire was taped off and not hooked into anything which I believe is the tach wire.  In the 5th (single) prong on the plug there was a long black wire stubbed into it by the previous owner but I do not have a document picture on where the other end led to, which is strange because the starter turns the engine over just fine.  See picture below.  Shouldn't the green/white wire be wired plug prong?

 

 

4.  There are no wires hooked up to the Neutral Safety Switch on the 4spd manual transmission and I do not see any wires coming from the harness to hook up into them (reverse light wires are there and work fine).  In fact, in my documentation photos I do not see a wire into the neutral safety switch.  I do not think this would be preventing spark but want to confirm.  Does anyone know where the neutral switch wires lead to?  I thought it would be the starter to prevent it from starting but the starter works fine NOTE:  I Have looked at 15 different wiring diagrams and cannot find the NSS anywhere on the diagrams to trace.

 

PARKLIGHTS & DASH

5.  I have strong power to headlights, strong power to turn signals (front and rear) but I have NO parklight power in front, rear side or rear brake housing when lights are on.  Brake lights and reverse lights work fine.  I have cleaned/rotated the inside terminals in both the combo light and turn signal switch but there is no power going to any of the 4 parklights.  There is one red wire dangling from what I believe to be the Lighting wire loom in the dash but there is no place to connect it to on the combo switches.  Dash is off btw so I have full access to the backside.  Everything looks hooked up properly.

 

 

6.  Green dash lights for turn signals, e-flashers, high beam and headlights are strong but I have NO other dash/illumination lights (no e-Brake indicator, no dash illumination - tried turning resistor knob no luck and it is hooked up properly behind dash).  Cigarette lighter works fine.

 

Appreciate any thoughts or suggestions to further troubleshoot these issues.  I am in Northern VA and will have to take it to Eiji at Datsun Spirit if I cannot get this resolved.

[datzenmike]

1/ That's the wrong coil to use. You want one around 1.5 ohms and an external ballast of around 1.5 ohms. There are two wires to the coil. One is on in the running position to the external ballast resister (which drops the voltage to preserve the points from excessive arcing) connected to the coil positive terminal. The other is on in the start position and by passes the ballast resister and is connected directly to the coil positive terminal to give full 12v during start. By using a coil with an internal resister you are not getting full voltage during start. It should still work but this is not the best.

 

Find the second wire and connect both to the coil. Between the two wires you should have power during start.

 

What's the fuse for???

[blur35mm]

Thanks Mike.  I will pick up a new coil and OEM ballast resistor and give that a shot.  The G/W and B/W wires fused are the way it was wired before (it was a wiring spaghetti mess).  I assumed they removed the ballast resistor due to the L28 engine/distributor?  Regardless I will go back to stock setup and see if that works.

[blur35mm]

Got the engine running, thanks Mike.  With the L28 engine swap I had to remove one wire from the negative side of the coil.  No ballast required.  Everything running great now.  My timing was 180 degrees backwards but reset the oil pump with TDC and the cam lobe bunny ears set properly and all is well.  Will dial in the timing next.  The electrical parklight issues were resolved due to a bad ground wire connection in the dash from the motorsport voltage boost harness.  Thanks for the help!  May be back for other topics but for now onto the next phase of the restoration.

[banzai510(hainz)]

On 7/16/2023 at 5:16 PM, blur35mm said:

My timing was 180 degrees backwards but reset the oil pump with TDC

Really you can just swap the plug wires 180degs.. some people put the dist  and mnount on the front cover 180 out but the rotor points in the same spot,(like to the front)

 

On 7/16/2023 at 5:16 PM, blur35mm said:

No ballast required. 

The ballast is for the stock 1.5 ohm coil. Its not makde to run on fill 14volts when running.

You have a bypass wire(HOT START) that goes to the +coil during START. then key switches to one it goes thru the ballast and then to coil. Drops 6 volts each.

 

if not ballst your coilwill get HOT and mayeb burn the isolation. Or if still points burn those up also. If you have a EI dist then that might be fine

[banzai510(hainz)]

On 5/13/2023 at 11:05 AM, blur35mm said:

I assumed they removed the ballast resistor due to the L28 engine/distributor? 

 This will work with a EI coil then not ballast is needed. I EI coil is ahe later type made to run on 12/14volts.