car trouble

a friends husband grrr, said he would change the points in my mazda 626

1. anyway this post has made me feel so much better and i hope someone reads this and feels sorry for me and can offer some advice and maybe think of something we havent tried i am a single mother on very little income which is why i let him touch the car, he does no what he is doing and has fixed many cars but never a mazda

Okay, what sort of electronic ignition system did you put in? Was this one of the aftermarket modules? If so, are you sure it was any good, since after all it did come from a junkyard?

Find a competent mechanic. Not somebody who is too busy to do anything but spray some stuff around. Not somebody who is the husband of a friend.

If the electronic ignition module is one of the aftermarket units that still uses the points to get timing information, it should be very easy to remove and put back to the car's original state. Then you can at least be assured that all the problem -was- caused by the ignition retrofit. Either the problem was caused by a bad unit, or by wrong installation. You need to find out which but in the meantime remove it so you can drive the thing.

--scott

hi the ignition came out of another 1984 mazda 626 and the car had just came into the yard from where ever had been in a small car crash. when the friend at first tried to put the points in before we went for the ignition he changed the timing cause it was way off the marks and the car didnt like anything he changed it too. the mechcanic he is good but for any work thats going to take alittle while i really need to book it in, and id rang him the day before and he said to bring it in and he would have a quick look, i think in his mind he thought it would be a easy repair he didnt charge me and said to bring it back this weekend if it was still playing up

hi the ignition came out of another 1984 mazda 626 and the car had just came into the yard from where ever had been in a small car crash. when the friend at first tried to put the points in before we went for the ignition he changed the timing cause it was way off the marks and the car didnt like anything he changed it too. the mechcanic he is good but for any work thats going to take alittle while i really need to book it in, and id rang him the day before and he said to bring it in and he would have a quick look, i think in his mind he thought it would be a easy repair he didnt charge me and said to bring it back this weekend if it was still playing up

so your only problem is stall and rough idle, both at low RPM?

The "base timing" is set with the gun. When the car starts cold the timing is adjusted mechanically by the vaccum hose on the distributor and by the weights inside. Once the engine heats up the oxygen sensor starts workign and the computer takes over adjusting the timing. The actual firing of the spark plugs is done by the transistorized electronic points. The transistor module can be tested. Some auto parts stores will do it for free. When I tried to preplace the module on my 1989 Mazda engine (in a Ford Festiva) with one from a wrecker it failed the test. I had to buy a new one. There is no "after market" module for my car and I suspect there is not for yours either. There is only one manufacturer in Japan. The North American importer is Standard Auto Parts. Their Canadian subidiary is Blue Streak.

When you replace a module you should spread dielectric (non-conducting) heat transfer grease under it, the same stuff they use on Personal Computers to separate the CPU from the heat sink and fan. I believe my first replacement installed by a mechanic failed because it overheated. He put it in dry. Buy the grease at an electronics shop, not Radio Shack where it costs a lot more. I got 3 bubbles for $3 and used one.

Good luck.

Andrea, I'd just like to point out that the timing belt you had replaced wouldn't have anything to do with ignition timing. The belt drives the camshaft and is concerned with cam timing.

So, this year's model is available both with points and with an electronic system? They changed in the middle of the model year? That's weird.

Do you know what he changed? Did he change the whole distributor and a black box?

If it were up to me, I would have looked for one of those aftermarket units that were made in the seventies and eighties.... they keep the existing points but they run so little current through them that the points last a long time.

Everybody hates cleaning up after someone else. I know I charge a lot more to fix someone else's mistakes than to just do things from the bottom up, because there's sometimes a lot of effort involved in figuring out what the other guy actually did.

--scott

If the belt was installed wrong it would.

Well, OK, I realize that, but I was of the impression that it ran OK after the belt was installed. I could be wrong; it sure wouldn't be a first ;o)

ok after a call to my mechcanic this morning he said that, the car (remeber he had a drive of it and a play with it on thursday) is having a electrical miss and nothing to do with the timing. friend said he is wondering if its the fuel mix now the car starts and sounds abit loud on starting, but idiles fine in park, when u move it to drive it starts to make sounds out the back a poping sound not loud like a backfire or anything like that, the jump sort of bounces softly then if u dont quickly drive off it will stall same if u go to reverse, the other day (before the new distribertor cap and roter button change) the car didnt carry on for a while after u started driving, so it seems the troubles were as soon as the car warmed up since midnite last nite when the roter button was put in the car is doing the hole warmed up trouble as soon as u stick it in drive. anyway if any one has some ideas to what mite be causing the problems please leave a post or email me at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com so i can pass on it to the friend and maybe mechcanic

Andrea, have someone verify that the spark plug wires are routed properly in the dist cap. HTH, s