Spark plugs not firing?

[ProteanCarnage]

hey, im protean carnage. ive been a member here for a while, since i bought my 720 in about late October i think? anyways..

-It has been running great since about a few weeks ago. it was a cold day, (canada) but started up great as usual. i didnt give it as much time to warm as usual, only 2 to 3 minutes, and started to drive down my lane. ( i live on a farm).
-about .5km down the road it stalled. "wtf" i said. just died, no warning whatsoever. and couldnt get it started again. i have NEVER had problems getting this thing to start, very f*** reliable. Tried boosting it, no luck. towed it back to my house and did some work next day.

-i ordered new spark plugs, new dis rotor and cap, had already installed a new alternator and battery at that point. got that all installed.
-still didnt fire. battery tested good, alt tested good, even tested the ignition coils, they were firing, distributor was spinning.

-added gas in the tank, and tested fuel , engine was definately getting gas. then i tested the plugs, and they werent firing. none on the right side. dont recall if that was intake or extake. (yes i installed the plugs right, i had a howto of correct plugs and which side to use them, just forgot that part.)

anyways, any ideas? should i test the plugs on the other side? i still need to replace the spark wires but that shouldnt stop all of them from firing, especially in the middle of driving and just die, right? wheres the middle man from the coils to the plugs if the dizzy is working?


*UPDATE* PICS, EVERYONE LOVES PICS

Air cleaner off, old dizzy unbolted, ready to be replaced


she looks even better when she is clean


font int. full of tools currently


sub and amp placement, i made it work somehow ;P


Anyways, the the cheap icm was apprently out of stock, even though they didnt tell me for two entire weeks after ordering. that pissed me off. so now im gonna say hell with it and i ordered the full rebuilt dizzy. currently in california,hopefully here in a week. anyways i got my new shocks in, and put in two new ground wires at the back of the engine, because they were almost falling apart.

[PEZi]

The rotor cap? I think that's all that's left, really...

[breadbox]

unless the dizzy itself is the problem.

[dreadsiren]

beadbox beat me to it, test the icm in the dizzy, it sends the impulse to the coils to fire the plugs... sadly spinning dizzy means nothing for the icm. just went through that myself, lol you replaced the cap & rotor already right? also, test the ignition relay on the passenger side by the battery (4tab, usually blue, same as heater relay above fuse box so if your heater works easy to swap/test) and of course any/all fuses in the box as there is a coil fuse that can blow.

edit- ICM (ignition module) is in the dizzy under the rotor, its the black thing with the wires connected to it (3 to 5 wires depending upon year)

**sits back wondering if there is 'something in the anitfreeze' since this just happened to me and now its happening to everyone else

[ProteanCarnage]

How would i test the icm and ignition relay?? using a voltmeter? i have the one with 4 posts. i hope its not that, not cheap. fuses are good, checked those. I had a hunch it was the dizzy but id rather not buy the part if im not sure thats the problem.

and i will check my antifreeze. i should getting around to flushing that actually. its getting pretty dark.

[ProteanCarnage]

nvm i googled it. but i dont have any testers anyways so ill just take it in to be tested. hopefully i find the problem soon. im sick of driving my grand am.

[dreadsiren]

if it is the relay you can pick one up on ebay for 10.00 +2.00 shipping (cheapest I have found) have you tried swapping it for the heater relay yet to see if it solves the problem? (above the fuse box, first one in the row) my cheap icm comes in on monday, kinda long to wait but I will post back and let you know if it works, found it new on ebay and they have 4 left for 38.76 w/free shipping. cant see it fitting all the interchanges except the 720 but who knows.

[motorking]

Hi,
I am the tech manager at Autolite Spark plugs. You most likely have a bad igniter in the distributor. They go bad because of oil intrusion due to a failure of the seal that separates the electronics from lubricating oil. It is best to just replace these distributors when the ignitor goes bad. They are commonly available on ebay for around 100$ . They are around 300$ plus from the parts store.
Good luck

[ProteanCarnage]

Okay everyone thanks for the help! I finally got back to my parents place for the weekend so i could work on my truck. Anyways i tried switching the relays and that didn't seem to fire the enging unfortunately. I will test the plugs again, maybe it is firing and is just flooded??T he relay for the heater, does it control the heat or just the blowing part? i would like to see if maybe the ignition relay is bad after all and it isn't firing for another reason. It got too cold though so ill try tomorrow.

But it does seem like i will be buying a dizzy tomorrow. Found a nice used one on eBay for 70 with shipping. Anything i should know when installing it? Do i need to mark it when i take it out?

Thanks for all the help so far!

[dreadsiren]

thankfully the dizzy doesn't need marked, it only goes in 1 way (timing gear is in the motor not on dizzy) I would recommend bringing the motor to top dead center before installing it to make sure its pointing the right way! found mine was 180 out due to the last person who owned the motor replacing the oil pump and not timing it right, makes trouble shooting go better if it fails to fire best way is to take out #1 exhaust side plug and test with screwdriver pulling crank till #1 is as high as it can go (make sure your in neutral or you'll never get it) then line up the cap/rotor and make sure its aiming at #1, other than that its pretty straight forward you can use your harness and just disconnect the icm & ground then connect to your new one, or disconnect from the coil pack (looks like a black shield with 3 wires out each side) and condenser (white wire with black plug) once you have the vacuum advance side down and lined up with your bolt downs slide it in and spin the rotor till it slips on to the tab (rotor will no longer move freely by hand) make sure to re-time it when your done!

p.s. the blower relay powers the fan/blower part of your heater
p.s.s the ignitor/icm I bought worked like a charm, so part #wa916 or lx-566 work for a 4 wire dizzy as well as the lx555 (evil laugh)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0956250323 they still have 4 left last I checked

[ProteanCarnage]

thanks for all the information! so if that part is only 40 bucks and it works how come it isnt anywhere on these forums? thats insane. Anyways is it probably the icm? my dizzy looks alright from the outside, is there a reason why i should replace it? i think i will just test the icm itself and replace it if i can get it for 40 dollars new, instead of 180 for a s*** refurbished distributor.

[dreadsiren]

no kidding, its crazy but true, I just installed mine and it works great, it doesnt look like the picture though (as usual) but it is the right shape and size, fits on the mounting plate perfect. I didn't give the listing before due to uncertainty of part number but I am positive now wish they had more than 4 left though! apparently its a close out/last few left thing. when you go to replace it the easiest way to remove the reluctor (ninja star) is with two standard (flat) screw drivers (gently pry/wiggle upwards, mine was a bword but you might get lucky), just make sure you don't ding up the blades on it and you should be fine, to replace the reluctor once you have the new icm on remove the round pin, put reluctor on spindle and then tap pin back in place (make sure it lines up with the flat spot) bonus is if you jack one of them up they are relatively cheap unlike the damn icm, lol... but yeah it has all 4 correct connectors and I have good clean spark now so nice cheap way to solve the no spark issue turns out they last about 20-30 years so common part for our trucks ages... almost wish it had points instead!

also, here is the actual manual for how to test the ignition system, shows wirind diagram, multimeter testing and icm replacement... figures I'd find it after installing mine, lol
pages 32 (link below) thru 39 are all diagnostic and how to for testing and replacing parts on the dizzy/ignition system

http://asavage.dyndns.org/nissan/displa ... age=20-032

[ProteanCarnage]

once again, thanks for all the helpful info. just bought that icm you recommended, hopefully that does the trick! for now i got some time to replace shocks and ball joints and fix up my stereo a bit. will update the thread when i get the part.

[ProteanCarnage]

BUMP for PICS

[Vette75]

I think my truck is having the same issue, does anyone know if the module lx591 on ebay will work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/180609365885?ss ... 1423.l2649

The reason I ask Is I tried to purchase the module WA916C off of the company on ebay and they canceled my auction, refunded my money with no explination why? It looks pretty much the same.Thanks for any help.

[ProteanCarnage]

Not sure about the lx591, but the WA916C went out of stock. i bought the part as well, and they ended up calling me 2 weeks later saying it wasnt in stock. for some reason they didnt take it down. i recommend spending the money and going with the whole rebuilt dizzy. may as well spend the extra few bucks and have it run better.

[Vette75]

I ordered a remanufactured distributer hope it fixes the problem thanks for the input.