Thread: VE losing spark

i have had this problem for about a month now and i just can't think where to go next... i have searched and can't find anything that is that same as my issue...

92 se-r sr20ve, de maf, i/h/stock exhaust... VE DISTRIBUTOR

the car started randomly stalling about a month ago while driving, just losing all power... hop and and check for spark while cranking and none, so it is randomly losing spark so i bought another VE distributor to try and waited 3 weeks for the seller to actually drop it of to ship, as i was hoping to get it and figure this out, it's getting cold and i need to get my car ready to store for the winter, so this sucks...

no CELs, but had some stored codes including 12 - MAF (came unplugged a while ago, and should not effect spark), 13 - coolant temp sensor (if memory serves me right this will pretty much just throw the car in limp/safe mode), 21 - ignition fault (this is what i would usually lean towards), 34 - knock sensor (no big deal and i'm ignoring that one)

code 21 is the one that i am interested in, ignition fault... includes the coil, ignitor and power transistor (which is all internal on the VE distributor)... could that include something with the ignition itself?

i wired the harness for the VE distributor myself when i did the swap hoping for a cleaner install and just less wiring... the car ran fine and never had a single issue ignition wise until this started happening, it's been in this car all year...

so far what i've done to troubleshoot is obviously bought another VE distributor, swapped ecu's, and looked through all the harness i changed and soldered and even started yanking on it while the car was running and it didn't cause it to lose spark... the grounds look fine, i turned the distributor while cranking just to try, took a test light while the car is not getting spark to the distributor plug and it's getting power just as it is when the car is getting spark, tried to pop start the car...

if anyone has seen or heard of or had this problem please let me know, or any advice would be great... the car runs pretty good and doesn't feel weak on spark while driving normally...

please please help so i can get my car to storage running as it's never seen salt in 20 years

thanks!

Ignitor going out?

Ve distributor is internal coil and ignitor... bought a new dizzy and no fix

plug wires replaced?

spark plug?

I'm having the same f*cking problem. Random stalls, NO codes though (except 34). I hope we can figure where the problem lies. I've checked everything electrical too (Yanking wires, replacing stuff) but can't seem to find the source. I'll post my advances on the problem here.

ser91 let me give you a small advice that might help you on your problem. I had a similar issue a while back (different from the one I'm having now). It turned out to be a bad contact from pin one on the ECU (The one that sends the ignition signal to the distributor's primary coil). I fixed it by cutting a small -ecu pin- shaped copper sheet, then inserted it on the female ECU connector and bending the remaining bit away from the pin. This way the (pin shaped) copper sheet gets sandwiched between the actual male ECU pin and the female contact on the main ECU harness

Hope I explained myself well

On my side of the stalling, I tried a different MAF but th mfn' problem didn't budge a bit. Going to try another ECU next.