Miata stumbles, wont fire

[Mike Mackaman]

Sorry to post street car questions on here, but I have a '94 1.8 Miata that is my DD. Recently had a washer go through the timing belt and cause the timing to be off. Reset everything and life is good. Now the car will occasionally just fall on its face, usually from a stop, then pick up. Last Saturday at my cousin's house, and this morning in the driveway, I start it, it runs really rough for 10-15 seconds, dies and will not refire. Stuck a plug in the #1 wire, and laid it on the valve cover and I didn't see spark, but it was very sunny, I was trying to get to work, etc. Saturday on the highway I noticed the tach drop from like 3800 to 3200rpm a couple of times. The car doesn't feel like it has quite the power it had before the timing belt washer incident, and the mileage is down too, a few mpg.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, love the little car, but I need to get there and back every time!
Mike

[pballance]

Coils? My son's Miata did this and replacing the coils solved it. Might swap the coils and see if no spark follows the coil change. And FWIW, make sure you have the timing right. It took me three tries to get it right and get the belt tension adjusted correctly. Be sure to follow the procedure and rotate the crank 1 and 5/8 turns for the tensionser. Good luck

Paul

[Mike Mackaman]

Thanks! That was what I was thinking, but as I have no spares on hand, it is kind of hard to swap things around! I will reverify the no spark, I put new plugs and wires on it at lunch. Still no ZoomZoom! Now that it is dark, it is easier to verify spark, etc.
Mike

[Mike Mackaman]

Don't know what happened, but it started when I tried this evening, rough at first, but then smoothed out. That is twice it has done that. Any ideas?
Mike

[Mike Mackaman]

Update - Since I had issues with cam timing changes, I rolled it around to verify everything was where it should be. Intake cam was off a tooth. Put it back where it was supposed to be and it runs better. Still having some issues with extremely low, low end power. Better than before, but not great.

Mike

[Mike Mackaman]

OK, it finally died and would not fire no matter what, and when it did run was so weak it would barely run and required nearly full throttle to get the revs up enough to get moving. I replaced the coil pack with another, no change. Swapped the CAS and it started right up and seems to run fine. Have to button everything up tonight so I can drive it, but it reved like the all is wonderful again! Zoom Zoom!
Mike