88 Yugo Dead Again

FAMICOMASTER

FAMICOMASTER

Yugo owner
Hello all, I'm back again with a new problem I can't seem to figure out.

Car has been running and driving pretty reliably for the last 2-3 months but last week I noticed a dramatic drop in power while driving home from work, then that the car could no longer launch itself without stalling the next morning when I tried to drive it.
Come to find that the vacuum advance nipple on the distributor broke off and was creating a vacuum leak while also giving me no more vacuum advance. Pretty big problem, definitely why the car acted up.
Didn't want to shell out a ton of money for a new one, scored a cheap used one pulled from an X1/9 on eBay for under $40 shipped. Grimey and missing a clip but no worries there.

Distributor arrived, I cleaned it up and installed the clips from the old distributor. Removed old one (Lock bolt is horrible to access on an AC car), dropped new one in and left bolt loose to set timing properly. Made sure to place rotor in exactly the same position it came out and put cap on the same way it came off.

Try to start car... Nothing. Twist distributor a bit. Still nothing. Twist other way. Backfiring. Remove timing cover, turn engine with wrench until mark on cam pulley is aligned with tab on the engine. Place distributor back in engine with rotor pointing directly at #1 plug. Backfiring. Double-triple-quadruple check firing order is correct. Twist distributor in every way that could be possible and car won't do anything more than occasionally backfire when cranking.

When cleaning and installing new distributor, I made sure to use the known working interruptor wheel and pickup coil from the old distributor on the new one.

I was going to set timing with the mark on the flywheel but the location of the thermostat / water outlet housing makes that completely impossible.

Any tips or tricks on timing this thing so I can get it back on the road?
 
FAMICOMASTER said:
turn engine with wrench until mark on cam pulley is aligned with tab on the engine. Place distributor back in engine with rotor pointing directly at #1 plug. Backfiring. Double-triple-quadruple check firing order is correct. Twist distributor in every way that could be possible and car won't do anything more than occasionally backfire when cranking.
Click to expand...
If it is like the X1/9, the rotor should be pointing at the #4 plug wire (not #1) with cam and crank at their respective TDC marks.
 
So the mark on the cam pulley lining up with the tab on the engine should be firing #4, correct?
The mark isn't perfectly straight up and down, so I wasn't sure if that was even correct. I will try moving it for #4 tomorrow.
 
Double check that your plug wires are oriented correctly, it's very easy to get messed up and have the wires going to the wrong plugs or not sequenced right at the distributor cap.
 
Timing it off of cylinder 4 got the car running again. I don't think I gave it enough advance because it won't exceed 40 on level ground anymore.
 
Assuming you got everything correct with the dist, at idle the crank pulley mark should show up between the 2 closest together timing marks on the T-belt cover, using a timing light. Without experience not likely you can twist the dist around and get the Ign timing even close to correct by ear.
If you've previously been driving the car with it not running well, i/e engine miss, etc, for any length of time/miles, potentially the Catalytic Converter (if you have one) has melted internally and is blocking the exhaust system. It may start and run but without a free path for the exhaust to exit, power won't be available to go very fast.
 
Giving it more advance it can now achieve and maintain 60 again, which is all I ever ask of it. Thanks for all the help
 
Must not have done something right because I got about 100 miles out of it before getting in the car this morning, firing it up only for it to die at the end of my driveway. Dragged it back to the garage with my truck and I don't appear to have any spark.

Distributor is used but fairly new, wires are new and all ohm out just fine, ignition coil ohmed out fine but replaced it anyways since it appeared to have been hot at some point, fuses are good, I have power at the coil with the ignition switch on and when cranking, the control module tested good, the wiring between the pickup and the control module is fine, and as a last ditch I replaced the pickup coil and reluctor wheel. No change.

The whole ignition system is all new or tests good. Am I missing something here?
 
FAMICOMASTER said:
Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
Perhaps "Yugo"? :p

Actually I like Yugos. But given the electrical gremlins common to Italian cars, I'm sure the Yugoslavian version must be even worse. I'd start from the beginning and test every component all the way through the entire system.
 
That's what I did.

Battery cranks engine, 11.8 volts while cranking 12.7 volts when off. Good.
Power at coil during cranking and with ignition on indicates ignition switch, fuse, and wiring to that point are good.
Wire between coil ground and ignition module shows continuity.
Ignition control module was removed and brought to a shop with a tester - It passed but I tried it with another module anyways. No change.
Wires between control module and distributor show continuity.
Pickup coil in distributor shows 1100 ohms, same as old distributor, same as NIB pickup coil.
Distributor turns with engine while cranking. Drive is good to that point.
Distributor cap and rotor are new and still look good. To be safe, I cleaned them both anyways. No change.
All plug wires and coil wire show good continuity with low resistance.
Plugs looked a bit worse for wear so I replaced them anyways with a fresh set of NGKs.
Ground between cylinder head and battery cable shows good continuity.

That's all I could think to check and everything seemed fine. I don't have any spark at the coil or at the plugs, and I have no idea why.
 
Have you checked for spark right at the coil? I would start there first to see if you need to look further upstream or downstream.
 
I pulled the coil wire off and stuck a screwdriver in it. When cranking the engine, no spark jumped from the screwdriver to the valve cover. Verified I have a good ground between valve cover and battery negative post.

That was my first thought as well.
 
You can check if the coil is good by removing the wire from the negative terminal and use a test lead to ground it for a moment with the ignition on. When you ungrounded it there should be a spark.
 
Good point. I didn't think of this at the time and wound up putting the coil in two other cars, a Geo Metro and a Mazda B2000 (which use the same style of coil) and both vehicles ran with it installed.
It looked like it had been hot at some point, though, so just to be safe I put a new one in which also worked fine in both of those other vehicles.
 
Engine ground had become loose. Cleaning and tightening it got the engine going again. Unfortunately some new problems arose, so I'm going to move them to an appropriate thread.
 
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