you guys were right my grounding strap was not in the right spot. so with that fixed the engine turns over by the starter but i have no spark, i have fuel but no spark. i will keep going. its gotta be something

 

ECU deduces base ignition, and injector, timing from TDC sensor.

If you have fuel, but no spark:

- no power on the 2P plug going to the distributor
- no IGO connection from the ECU on the "extra" white wire in the sensor plug
- bad coil
- bad ignitor
- something stupid (bent pins in plug, missing ignition rotor, etc)

 

i bet he didnt have it plugged in to begin with. Ive done that before.

 

I've left the dizzy unplugged like an idiot before, but it takes 30 seconds to six minutes to figure it out. Six minutes is good and frustrating, though, as you're thinking real hard and poking around at all sorts of stuff just to go, "Oh. I'm stupid."

I spent six hours on one car, because my two "known good" distributors that I was taking coil/ignitor from to test were junk. When you have that much stress involved in a car, when it turns out to be something stupid, it is actually a relief.

But, only n00bs leave the ignition rotor out, and slap a distributor cap on. And I see that on every other ZC swap somebody asks me to troubleshoot post-install. Three cars out of six to date. Crazy, huh?