84-camaro-zoom

i have a 1984 berlinetta camaro it has a v6 2.8l i will be changing the engone soon enough but for now it has to do...
I found tdc and have the distributor set properly.. with the sparks in the right order... It sounds like it turns over very well.. i dont think there is any power going to the coil to send a spark... and don't know how to properly wire it up.. Also i by passed the ignition to just a switch in the engine bay to turn the engine over.. my friend mentioned the computer has to be hooked up in order for the car to fire aswell?? if so how do i get just the computer hooked up..i want to gutt everything from the car so its just drives.. for now..
thanks in advance every one

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

If it is an EFI(never seen a carb'd V6 in a 3rd gen), then yeah....You'll need the computer hooked up to fire the injectors, among all the other sensor inputs for it to run right..

SeanW

you can check if you are getting spark by taking off a plug wire and grounding it out to anything while you turn the motor over. No spark means no spark. To check the injectors you will need either an old school multimeter with a mechanical gauge, digital will be too slow to catch the pulse width, or a simple test light.

84-camaro-zoom

first of all yes it does have a carb.. and second thats how i know it doesnt have a spark i did exactly what you said to do by grounding out one of the sparks and i didnt get anything from that... and the only wire from the coil are going to the distributor.. i need to know how to get power strait to the coil.. ?? it has 4 prongs two of them go to the distributor and theres two that arnt being used ??

zraffz

If it's carbed, it has no computer controlling anything like that unless you have an aftermarket ignition box. I suggest making sure the primaries on the carb are opening and delivering fuel first. Then check for spark. It is a fuel, air, or spark related issue.

My bad I just read your last post. Uh, temporarily hook the coil directly to the positive side of the battery and try starting it. That will draw power to the coil (and the entire dashboard) so you can test to see if it has spark.

84-camaro-zoom

im not trying to figure out whats wrong i know whats wrong i just want to know how to fix it!! i dont know how to wire the coil back up.. and are you sure if its carbed it doesnt have a computer to factor the air to fuel ?? my distributor has a vacuum advance on it..

84-camaro-zoom

lol i should have read your entire message before responding lol
well if you were to look at my coil it has 5 connectors in total one for the cord to goto the distributor cap and then two wires going inside the distributor and now i have two left and i dont know which one of the two to power ?? should have marked it before taking it apart

zraffz

Air to fuel would be done via a mass air flow sensor wouldn't it? Carbs don't require a computer at all because their are no sensors controlling anything (unless you have something aftermarket for WOT, which isn't really a sensor and that has no relation to your problem).
All that controls air/fuel ratio on a carb is the rate at which the primaries and secondaries open at.
As far as your wiring, I'm a little confused. It has 4 prongs, yes. But you should be having only two clips that hook to those 4 prongs (they are clips, one clip will connect the first two prongs left & and right and the next clip will connect the bottom two prongs.) If you only have one clip on, check to see what its clipped to (it will rather say "BAT" or "TACH")

It seems to me you don't even have a power wire running to the coil, all you have is a wire for the tachometer. As far as rewiring that, I have no idea where they run to; common sense says one of the wires in the clip runs to the battery but every vehicle I have ever worked on has had both sets of clips so I never had to rewire it. I'd look for the other clip (containing the two wires from the battery). It's not something that can fall off, the clip has to be floating around somewhere on the wiring harness.


EDIT:
Did your tach work before? If not then you probably hooked the power feed for the coil to the tach instead of where it's supposed to go.

84-camaro-zoom

Whta your saying sounds right.. but im having a hard time picturing it and it doesnt help that ever with has be cut and then spiced with another wire so i cant go by colot really that why i need to know the proper way to do it and im just custom wiring it...
fyi the inside of my car is striped right down to the fire wall... all thats left is the steering column wiring and thats it

zraffz

So how do you know that the two wires that you do have hooked up were meant to go where you put them and not into the two prongs? For all you know you have the power wires hooked to the tach, in which case you aren't supplying the coil. Atleast try and switch it around before rewiring it, it won't hurt anything.

I assume as far as wiring goes, the two wires that supply power is ground and feed (negative and positive off the battery). If that works then wire it up properly, use a test light and turn the key forward (right before trying to start) and start hitting wires with a test light to find whats drawing power when the ignition is on. Tap into one of those wires and then run another wire for ground.

SeanW

Its not really that simple. Your accessory circuits will have power in the key on position but will cut power in the start position. You sort of need to have power to your coil when you are trying to start. Best thing to do is run a keyed hot right from the fuse box.

zraffz

Thanks for shedding light on this, I'd like to learn more about this (since clearly I don't understand it)
Would anybody have any diagrams/schematics of this?

84-camaro-zoom

Well i was the one who started this thread end i had know idea what to even ask... but heres a site that helped me http://www.familycar.com/CLASSROOM/ignition.htm

i finally got my engine to fire the second i had power going to the coil she started like a beaut

miguel2011

Het thinks for the link on top i really needed and searched for it for awhile