Well here it is , my car is a 75 914 with a 1.8 . And i just basically did a distributor overhaul , I replaced the rotor , top points , and o ring on the distributor shaft , condensor and then also replaced the plugs , coil and spark plug wires . And so now I have a no start and im not getting any spark .Now after i removed the distrbutor i DID NOT turn over the engine , so in theroy there should be no problem with re stabbing the distributor as far as I know because its not one of the 2.0 ... Please help! Thanks

Sounds to me like you just need to check everything you did to make sure it is all right. I don't think you could put the distributor 180 degrees off. I could be wrong. I forget what the fours are like. Do you have your points set right?

check for power at the + teminal at the coil.

RE-check points are gapped properly.

if still no spark, check that points are not grounded somehow. Happened to me once inside the distributor when I didn't put the points in right.

swap old coil back in for the fun of it.

get back to us with your findings.

First of all. I'm local and you have PM.

well i double checked everything and found that i had the wire from the condensor going to the + side of the coil and the wires from the ignition switch going to the - side so after switching those , I had spark coming out the coil and coming out the end of the plug , but still no start. Fuel pressure is at 39 psi while cranking and still no start , what am I missing here? Thanks for all the feed back so far.

It could be a it flooded from all the start attempts. Hold your foot to the floor and crank it for awhile. When I had D-jet I turned the key off & of so many times one day that I had gas coming out of the exhaust.

914chic: I left you my phone number in a privet message. Just edited my post to welcome you here, sorry I missed the smile. Do you have power at the coil? Spark plug wires in the right order?

Yea well today was not all bad because I got power at the coil and firing out the plugs , twice today it back fired through the intake , and another thing is that I dont belive that the wiring harness is the factory stock one because nothing matches the ETM , so I have the wire from the condensor that is green going to the negative side of the coil and have the yellow wires coming from the igntion switch going to the postive side and then there is 2 black wires coming from the harness and connected to the positive side of the coil also. Thanks again

also I tried calling you Joe but got your voicemail twice , you number is 714 correct

If you're backfiring through the intake you need to verify that you are installed correctly. IF it is in correctly and not 180 out then you need to make certain you are starting on TDC. You have a timing issue right now.

I agree with the back firing through the intake that it would be off 180 but when I did pull out the distributor I never cranked it over or turned over the engine so how could it be off

I have heard of someone putting one in backwards and having it not want to start. (714) 847-8002

Alright so tomorrow I m gonna pull the distributor out and spark plug one , fine TDC and then re install the distributor and try from there! Sound good.

Verify the braided ground wire between the point plates isn't broken, especially at each end where it is soldered. Is the spark at the plugs yellowish or a nice bright blue?

Verify that the dizzy is seated all the way in.

You can't install the dizzy 180 degrees out unless you pulled the drive gear up and turned it 180 degrees out. And even if you did that the dizzy would still drop in and work. So forget about that.

If you're backfiring through the intake you probably have your plug wires in the wrong order. Verify and check and re-check the firing order. Put the car at #1 TDC and start with #1 and go 1432 clockwise on the cap.

Alright yeah varrified that the copper ground braided wire is fully intact and not broken and the color of the spark is a yellowish color.
Gint: after you said that , I know realize that i have the spark plug wires completely off , I m gonna fix that today and will get back with my finding's.

Wait... About the spark color... You verified that it IS, or is NOT yellowish? If it is yellowish instead of bright blue, then you have a problem with weak spark.

I had similar symptoms and the spark was weak because of a bad ground to the points plate. I ran a temporary ground wire from the top plate to the dizzy housing and the spark got fat again and it fired right up. If you're sure that braided wire is good, it must be something else. But you might want to use a multimeter to check the resistance between the points plate and the dizzy housing just to be sure it's good.

Alright I realized that I was off on the spark plug wiring and once i fixed that The spark was a fat blue and the car would start .... run for like a second and then die then I would try an re start it and it would just crank , then I would let it sit and then try again and it would start for like a second and then die again !

Your timing is likely too far out to start and run quite yet. While you could set static timing, this might be easier.

Move your dizzy about 5 degrees one way and try to start. If it doesn't start there, turn it back the other way 10 degrees (or back to where you started and then another 5 degrees the opposite direction as the first attempt) and try to start. And when you get it started, go find a timing light and time it to spec.

You're getting really close.

Hells bells, man. give him the hard way.

Loosen that sucker up, HAve a friend or family member hit start (or hook up a remote start button and do it yourself.) And adjust the thing until it starts while they crank. Once it's started, give it gas, and check for 3200 on the tach (through the window- god love the 9-1-4) Find a good tune by adjusting the dizzy. Let it idle at decided-upon angle.) Smell exhaust- NOT TOO MUCH! - for rich conditions, a little rich is better than too lean. Lock that dizzy-dazzy down town. Shut the car off, and restart to verify that the thing works again.

Well it's been awhile since I posted but , I took everybody's advice and ran with it . Havent been working on to much lately but realized today that everything is legit except that the injectors are not firing and like i said everything is legit like fuel pressure and yada yada , pretty much after the cold start injector lets the car fire and quit firing the car quits runing , I am beging to think ecm problem or harness , So bring on the double mother f?@kin dual webers!

The problems on my 75 got it carbed and I never looked back. I put on dule single 40 Solex's and loved them. Later on Linda's 72 we did the same thing for the same reason. At on point she got about 49 MPG. Well now I have a new driver and I put them on it and I'm still in love with the duel singles.
What ever you decide, I have some parts here and can save you guys some money.

Cool Joe and thanks for all the help ,it just kinda bums me out that i came all this way and am still unable to figure it out , but you never know! Thanks

Yeah, I was very frustrated with Linda's car for a year and a half. When I put the carbs on my 75 I had just spent about 6 months learning D-Jet and wasn't ready to learn L-Jet. It was doing what your car is when I found the loom charred I just put the carbs on.

I had the exact same symptoms as you're having. Car runs for a second, then just cranks. The cold start valve was sending a shot of fuel, which was making the engine fire, but then the injectors weren't working. Turned out that the plug for the injector contact points had come loose from the distributor. Plugged it in and it ran.

Bryan: L-Jet's have no contact points.

Well, there's the problem!!

As you can tell, I wasn't even thinking about D-jet vs. L-Jet. I was just happy to be able to add my .02. Either way, sounds like whatever tells the injectors to inject is not doing so. And that's all I can add, considering my rudimentary understanding of fuel injection.

Tachometer signal.

Does your tach work when you crank it?

There could be a wire that's flown the coupe from the dizzy or the coil that would give those results.

Yeah I got the right wire on the coil for the tach , from the wiring diagram looks like it goes to the negative side of the coil

And you're a girl???!??!?


Will you freaking marry me?

Awesome.

Make sure the cable on the airflow sensor is connected tightly. And that may be all I've got.

Changing a 1.8 to carbs is easy, but they make a lot of torque with the FI...

Actually I m a DUDE! just to clear that up! lol , I' m posting under my girlfriends username . She is the one that owns the 914 and is all into cars she actually has another car , a turbo'd lotus Im just her tech while she dose the little things i teach her!