brodster

We should be able to troubleshoot this. Do you have a voltmeter/multimeter? I am going to take a guess that these lights are PWM driven. Do you see a strobe affect or pulsating ghost affect when you wave the board in front of your eyes or shake your head really quick? I am assuming that little module with the red stripe on it controls this. Everything else is very standard looking: resistors, diodes, cap, LEDs. Is there any other identifying info on that unit. I see LB039. I can also kind of make out a number on that module: JC 2H084A?? Any info like that helps me hunt down a schematic and really simplifies trouble shooting. Thanks

I think you got quoted somewhere in that post. :D

Wait there are rules? (sarcasm) Seriously, I understand the crap that mods have to put up with. In fact, I am quite sympathetic. My wife and I did similar work years ago, and I wouldn't do it again. I'll just leave it at that. But let's be honest, rules 1,2,6,7 get violated quite frequently over a range of "grey area" to blatant disregard. By all means, I am no angel, and I when my wife ain't looking I stroll over to the as(s) pix. I mean hey, who doesn't want to see this: http://community.ratsun.net/topic/17492-post-ass/?p=941828. Personally, I don't care about things like that. I am not offended. But I have to ask: If we have rules (very specific ones), why don't we follow them?

Another new T-shirt idea for this epic, history-making event: Repost of my last T-shirt idea:

Good compromise.

2nd post and now 3 pages later. Looks like you were spot on.

Man, reminds me of my wife. One day I was out working on my Datsun as she was getting ready to go shopping at the mall. Two HOURS later she pops her head into the garage and was like, "Ugh why you spend so much time on that piece of shit. Do this outfit look good?" I said "Yeah sure". Then she got pissed and put on a new dress and changed all her makeup. An HOUR later after jumping my case for the Datsun again we FINALLY were ready to go to the mall for more shoe shopping. A mile down the road we saw that our car collector neighbor just got another old car for restoration. So now their were five old cars in his front yard. She got all pissed and tried to call the cops for some city violation. So I was like "biiiiiitttch..." Let just say the situation was resolved and I haven't got laid in two months.

Nice photoshop edit of my original pic. :)

I'm not very knowledgeable about the Z cars, but you should basically have the same EI black matchbox dizzy as the 4-cylinder version. Anyways, if you were to pop off the cap, there is a little six point star that spins inside a ring with six points. When the star spins it lines up with the points on the ring. Long story short, there is a coil and permanent magnet below that ring. Each time, the points line up, it changes the magnetic field produced by that permanent magnet. Then the coil detects that, and sends the pulse off to the black "matchbox". There should be two wires, green and red, that attach to the black box from the coil. This matchbox contains a very simple circuit with a power transistor, basically a solid state switch. This is what essentially opens and shorts the coil to produce your spark. Since you replaced the black box module, you could start looking for other culprits. First I would make sure that the ignition module and coil are properly connected. Do you have a multimeter/volt meter? Take voltage measurements at the coil + and - as well as the black brain box C and B terminals with everything connected. It may be hard to probe the C and B terminals with the plug on. With the key in the on state, you should be getting a pretty close to battery voltage at the + terminal. Depending on the state of the brainbox module, you might see a couple of different voltages at the negative side of the coil. At the B terminal of the black brain box, you should be getting "12+V". Another thing to check is your connection between the black box C terminal of the plug and the negative of the coil. First disconnect the plug from the black module. Switch your multimeter to Ohms, diode check, or continuity check. See if you have a connection between the plug terminal that connects to C and the negative of the coil. Start with that. I would suspect that your module or coil isn't getting power. Once we know that, we trace back up the faulty line and see if a fuse is blown or something. Also worth mentioning, since this is an old car, check all your ground connections. That never hurts and seems to be a culprit often.

Certainly could be a carb problem too. What all did you change or adjust between the time it was running and stopped running?

I am not very knowledgeable on carbs, but the choke shouldn't be too big of deal in hot weather. We have same 32/36 on our L16, and it fires right up with out messing with the choke. We also did a complete valve job too. Question: Where is the dizzy when it sounds best? Where is the advance? Do you have a second person to help and a timing gun? It is hard to tell when it is barely starting, but it may give you some indication whether you need more advance or not.

Off the top of my head I think the rotor turns counter clockwise. Think of it this way, if we want more advance, we need to rotate the dizzy body against the direction of the spinning rotor. In other works, if rotor is turning counter clockwise, spin dizzy clockwise. This will make the points open sooner in relation to the crank position. Also there should be markings near that adjustment plate where the 10mm bolt is. You may have to scrap some grease, but in one direction there should be an "A" or "R". Rotate towards "A".

When I put a new dizzy in I just put it somewhere in the happy middle. Keep in mind there are two adjusments for the advance. You have the lower one where it attaches to the pedistal and another where the indicator is. Where is it now? Maybe it give it a bit more advance and see if that helps it want to start.

Sounds like you are in the neighborhood. Last time I had this problem, I didn't have enough advance on my dizzy. I readjusted all and it fired right up.