i have this rs turbo that keeps playing aronud so i brought a new dizzy for it tryed it and the car wont start so i then brought another one off of a running car and still the same thing but as soon as i put the old one back on the car fires staright away the thing is if i have it set to std timing marks the car does not like to idle and is as flat as any think but if you twist the dizzy right round it idles and goes like a rocket but knocks i have changed the ecu as well but this didnt help, the only thing i can see is that some one has fitted a 90 spec loom one with knock sensor to the car but it has a 88 spec ecu engine metering unit etc etc,

 

hmmmmmmm

Would be worth checking your cam belt isn't a tooth out firstly i would say.

And just to clear up, its only Series 1's and the very very first S2's that rolled out the factory that don't have knock sensors. Anything 87/88/89/90 will definately have one.

And running an earlier ECU on a later loom is fine, its when you run a later ECU that needs the knock sensor signal without the sensor thats bad

 

the cam belt timing is spot on mate, thanks for the help

 

Somethings out of time if it won't run other than when the dizzy is fully advanced/retarded.

Are the plug leads right? Not one out are they?

 

no they are all right mate i have moved them round and everything, its just wierd how come only the original dizzy will run the car as the other two dizzys run on other cars just not mine

 

Could be anything mate.

As with anything if the car was here im sure i could find the problem with ease

 

yeh i no its just been in the garage and it bugs me when it aint running right its just drama's, just thought it was wierd how it wouldnt run on the other to dizzys it wont even start on them

 

How far do you have to turn it before it will run? Is it 90 or 180 degrees out or less?

 

it runs only when full retared mate, it wont run at all with the new dizzys

 

Have you put a timing light on it to see what the timing shows as when you have it running?

 

it reads 12 degress btdc

 

Now thats just odd?!

You fancy taking some pictures?

 

can has been left in crawley now as it has packed up all together now

 

Personally..........i reckon you've got a diozzy that someones been fucking about with, and the leads are all 1 out on the cap. So therefore your out adjustment dizzy will run the car fully retarded with the leads 90 degrees out, but a proper dizzy won't.......

So try starting again from scratch mate, get one of the dizzy's that work, time the engine up to TDC, fit the new dizzy, fit thre rotor arm, fit lead number 1 to where the rotor points.

Then fit the other 3 going anticlockwise, 3, 4, 2.

Then see if it starts

 

Just what I was thinking. Could be that the Dizzy you have got has been rebuilt incorrectly at some time which has been compensated for by moving the leads around in the cap...

A simple check would be to look at where the rotor arm is pointing with the current distributor on the car - then swap it for one that doesn't work. If the rotor arm is now pointing in a different direction then that's the prob...