Subasaurus Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 (edited) Coming from a 1979 GL 1600 4WD Wagon, Starting from the beginning--- Car ran absolutely great and flawless for the first 25 minutes then it all went to hell, from it backfireing, to only running on 1 piston, to the engine not allowing me to go any lower than 2,500rpm because if i did i would not recover the rpm's and it would leave me in the middle of the street, wait 5 minutes for something to "cool" and off i went again with the crappiest sounding vehicle there was. (note: vehicle was parked since 2002-2015 and it always did this to me every single time since when it first started up) i've replaced the cables, ignition coil, spark plugs, cap and rotor, and a remanufactured distributor with no change to absolutely anything, this morning it was only running on one piston, so much for waiting 25 minutes when it did it on start up. i've also put a timing light on the cables including the main one that comes from the ignition coil and the timing light comes on and off about once every 3-5 seconds which lead me to believe that it has weak spark, well the only things remaining that are electrical are the Transistor IGN Box and the magnetic sensor in the distributor. This is the Electronic Box that i cannot find anywhere for sale, tried online, tried all the junkyards from regular ones to full service ones and no one had a clue... anyone know where to get one? if this is even the problem. This is what the internals look like. This is off of a 1978 Toyota Corrolla that i tried rigging up to my wagon due to the lack of parts.. its a NipponDenso, it had the same setup, 5 wires, one was the body ground, another was the negative to the coil, positive to the coil, and the other 2 were to the sensor in the distributor. Was not successful with the NipponDenso setup so i went to plan B and used an igniter from a 1985 Honda, well that didn't work either.. after putting everything back together like how it was this morning, now the tachometer and the chrg (charge), Brake, and oil light no longer work, and they don't come on for the first 2 seconds like they used to, so i think i might of made things worse, oh and theres no longer spark, not even to that 1 piston now... i really am in the dark on this one, and no one in real life is even capable of helping me with such an obsolete rare vehicle, need your help badly... thanks alot!! -Omar. ---Forgot to Mention, my wagon has the Hitachi setup. Edited October 26, 2015 by Subasaurus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spicypeanut Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 Would that box be the same as this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/VR145-Voltage-Regulator-1977-1981-SUBARU-MOST-MODELS-N-O-S-/350939088263?fits=Make%3ASubaru%7CModel%3ABrat&hash=item51b5998587:g:LoAAAMXQWzNSlEz2&vxp=mtr It goes without saying if the gauge warning lights don't come on now I would check all the fuses and grounds. Maybe playing with the different electronics boxes blew a fuse. My first through about it running rough would be to make sure the carb is in good working order. I know on my Model T we had just rebuilt it but it didn't run right and we pulled it back apart only to find that the new float wasn't working correctly. It might be worth checking once you get the electrical issue solved. -Vaughn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subasaurus Posted October 26, 2015 Author Share Posted October 26, 2015 (edited) that would be the voltage regulator, its next to the transistor box, keeps voltage at 14volts instead of the 17volts that the alternator is capable of, thats not it :/ thanks for the help though.. and i guess i forgot to note also, i've checked all the bus fuses under the dash that are above the hood latch pull cable and ohmed them all out and everything checked out fine.. Edited October 27, 2015 by Subasaurus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subasaurus Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 (edited) does the transistor box also send the signals to the tachometer? i have a feeling it does? since some mornings the gauge doesn't work until something "warms up" for about 5minutes and then magically the background green lighting in the dash cluster lights up and the gauge comes to life. or advice on downgrading and going fully mechanical and getting rid of the electric stuff? where could i find an early distributor with the point thing inside? 1978 and before i think, don't know too much about them.. but what do i need in order for this to work?. Edited October 28, 2015 by Subasaurus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naru Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) I think you can swap in an ea-81 disty w/internal ignitor fairly simply. Points are garbage. The tach "counts" the pulses generated by the transistor box,but,the lighting issues are unrelated Edited November 13, 2015 by naru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subasaurus Posted November 13, 2015 Author Share Posted November 13, 2015 thank you for clearing how the tachometer works, i haven't done anything to the wagon in almost a month, been too busy. might have gotten a defective new coil but not sure yet, still need to swap that to see. ill keep an eye out for an EA-81, never knew those could work also, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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