please help with distributor issue

[240sx man]

Hello , code is 11 camshaft sensor,tried nissan, they cant find it, I told them it was in the distributor, do you really have to buy the whole distributor?, also .when installing dist., can some one please tell me which way is correct for install, i set it on t.d.c on compression,, and turned rotor to point to number one on cap, is that correct for these engines KA24 de, thanks for any help you can give...........

[pmkls2]

As far as I know most japanese cars you do actually have to replace tha whole distributor. And you pretty much got it with the distriutor install..........

[240sx man]

Thanks for the reply,my old distributor was bad, so I got the distributor for free from the yard I bought the engine from, it started up finally, but it took ,moving the distributor one tooth more counterclockwise than the book called for, now I have to remove the old tps sensor, the old engine is an automatic, and the new one is a standard, so the tps has 2 connections,and the standard has only one, no big deal, took the injectors off yesterday, pulled them out and cleaned them , also useing a homemade injector sprayer ,ran 2 bottles of cleaner till all injectors sprayed the same. it idles a little weird, but the tps not being hooked up is probably the reason.

[pmkls2]

just be sure to set the tps correctly when you install it or else you'll get some funny idle problems then too

[240sx man]

Thanks for all the replies, the distributor was the problem it started and runs good at highway, but the idle is ,hunting a little, like surging, I adjusted the tps for .50 and it helped a little , anyone have idle problems, swapped the injectors .also with known good ones, same problem, is tps reading really .3---.7 ? if so , then I guess it is adjusted right.

[pmkls2]

Sorry for the delay in the answer as I was out of town this weekend. There are many things than make the idle erradic. The first thing that I would do is to clean the idle controls, clean or remove the AIV, and double check the TPS voltage. .5 is good but there is also an on/off switch inside the TPS that also must be off or the idle will be very erradic. And if this is the case back off the TPS (meaning a lower voltage reading) until the idle drops to normal. Start there and see how it idles after that and let us know how it goes.

[240sx man]

First I want to thank you for taking the time to e-mail, here is how it is going, still idle hunts, here is some history, the engine has 41,000miles taken from a car that sat for a year, the compression is 185 psi and the leak test is perfect, ,I really believe the valve for idle you describe is stuck, I still have the other engine that only smoked, laying right next to it, I was thinking of swapping the whole intake system, its funny, the old engine had glass smooth idle, even while smoking and not passing an emission test,also when I put the distributor in NO matter what I do , if I want to start this thing ,it CANT be what the book says, the rotor has to be turned more counter clockwise, not a whole lot but at least one tooth, I have really taken the distributor out ,10-15 times, and tried to make sure the rotor was pointing at #1. but it wont start that way, that is really odd to me....I know if the engine timing is off then you cant put the distributor in the factory way, is there a way to tell by pulling the valve cover off, that the engine chains are where they are supposed to be? thanks again for any help.

[pmkls2]

well, Im not 100% sure exactly where the idle controls are on a ka24de as I have a ka24e but it may be just as easy to clean the controls on your existing intake. As for the timing I dont think that the chain could be far off enough to make you need to move the distributor a whole tooth because the engine probably wouldnt run or if it did it would run like crap. I could be wrong tho. I'm not sure on the DOHC motors how you can tell that the timing is off or if the chain is worn but I'd say with only 41k miles on it it is probably ok and I wouldnt worry about how the distributor goes in as long as when it does run it runs fone. Also, I know on the older engines there were 2 different types of distributor and that may be the case here is you have a different style but I am not sure. I would just get the engine running and try to get the idle smooth and go from there.

[frapjap]

I tried to put my distributor in when I did a stock to stock swap. I put it in with the rotor at cylinder 1, but it wasn't helping, it would always end up off a little bit and wouldnt even start. Long story short, I had to take off the valve cover and the cams and timing were DEAD ON.

Sooo, I ended up having to put the distributor in and before bolting it down, turn it slightly (left and right) to retard/advance the timing manually, and finally got it started, running, and idleing right.

Later I help a friend do the same swap, and the same thing happened, but instead of doign what I described but was running poorly, like yours, we decided it was starting the firing sequence at cyl 4 instead of cyl 1 for some reason, yet was still managing to run a little bit. So it turned out that the distributor was 180'd out. Try taking the 4th cylinder plug at the distributor and switching it with the 1st cylinder plug, and vise versa.

Try those out, I hope one of them works out for you!

[240sx man]

Great ideas, I will try them, I drove it to work today it ran so strong on the highway, I forgot how smooth this little engine was, but when it came time to idle, it started that miss, surge feeling, I am going to swap the intake and injectors for the old engine, this week end, I really think that there is something stuck inside this intake or idle valve, went to get wires yesterday, at Auto zone, what a nightmare, when the guy brought the 1995 240sx plug wires for 19.00$ to me ,the first thing I noticed is that they had 7 wires in the box, not the correct ones for sure. So after I had to go out and show him it only had 4 cylinders, I found out the autozone computer is wrong NATIONWIDE,, the 94 240sx was a little closer and cheaper than the 56.00 they want for the bosch wires,it was 32.00$, the 94 wires has the extra coil wire that I dont use,my coil is integral, but the wires were correct ,with the correct long boot. thanks for all the replies, I will let you know what happens after the intake swap.