83' 280zx

[krista]

Hi guys, I am new to this forum but not new to the forum world. Wanted to first start off by saying hi and I have already enjoyed browsing around and finding out a few interesting things. So now that my intro is done lets get straight to a problem I am having.

I have a 83 280zx with a non turbo 6. I brought the car down from my home in Amarillo and parked it in the gaurage. Went to drive it a month later and it would not start. So i went through the basics and I am stuck on spark.

What is the best way to tell if the car is getting spark. I tested a plug pulled out against the valve cover to see if I was getting spark and NONE.

Is there another way for my to check spark that you guys know of?

I need to get this first problem solved before I can more on to something else. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

[IdahoKidd]

Hi Krista,

Pull the coil wire out of the distributor cap and hold it near (1/8-1/4 inch) from a good ground and have someone crank the engine. It should fire a crisp blue spark.

Leonard

[krista]

sounds good I will try it when I get home

thanks

[krista]

There is no spark coming from the coil wire. What do you guys normal ground it to, because the wire is not to long and not many good spots to test it?

What is the next step if there is no spark from the coil wire?

[krista]

So I did some test as the manual suggested and it let me to believe the ignition coil was bad. I replaced it with a new one, but still no start.

On a side note: Wondering what the oil pressure in these cars is supposted to do when the key is turned on. Mine has no pressure, then I crank it and after a few seconds it will come up and then go back down after releasing the key. Is this the common practice for these cars.

I am at a loss with what to do as of now. I am a wrench head and have tried all the normal trial and error procedures, but as you all know and I am figuring out is these cars are far from normal.

[krista]

also is the "Sensor" light on the left of the guages suppost to stay on after all the other lights go off and you get the "Ok" light???

[Walter Moore]

The oil pump only runs while the engine is spinning, so that part sounds normal.

It could be several things. Do you have a factory service manual? You can download one here:

http://www.xenons130.com/reference.html

That is the place to start.

[krista]

I do have the manual, thank you for the link though.

I am just kinda lost on where to start problem solving through the manual.

[Nigel1943]

Suggest it might be the control module on the side of the distributor. It has letters/numbers embossed on it, probably E12 80.