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So it was a cold wet morning here today, and the little mazda didn't want to wake up.
It would start but it almost died every time I put my foot on the gas...

Flashing Check Engine Light comes on.

I let it idle for a bit, and it allowed me to move... but put my foot down... and it had nothing...
Let it warm up some more... and it started to drive, but really shitty...
Eventually it warmed up to operating temperature and it was back to normal.

Thoughts? I'm leaning towards electrical, likely the coil or perhaps the distributor cap.

try pulling the codes. sounds like either the distributor or the VAF.

Yup... Working on that.

Until then, when it's sunny, it drives great.

The Transition continues!

So, discovering why the engine doesn't like the cold wet weather was an easy task... The coil.

Replaced the coil/distributor and it ran fine... but I was shutting the car down for the winter, and hell knows that I needed another project. It was supposed to be a very simple one.

Update the ignition to an external coil, and add in the MSD 6A Ignition system I had in my old car.

20 minutes with a drill and a new distributor cap, some silver solder and presto... the cap was done!

Now for that MSD unit... well... I'm not sure what vehicle this KLZE was pulled from... the wire colours didn't match any from any MX6, 626, or Millenia. So I went about with Trial and Error.

And Error I did... repeatedly.

but succeeded?

Just got the TIP3055 connector today.

After work, I'm going to wire it up.
I'm going off of the MSD wiring diagram. Found here: (http://www.pazzer.net/pazzer/served/Fil ... nstall.gif)

I tried multiple different wiring combinations without the transistor and resistor... all of which caused the car to barely fire or it felt like an anti-theft was kicking in.

Folk'l over at PT had more drawings that supposedly worked... (http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread. ... 801&page=3)
I'm hoping that my problem is just the transistor... I want this back on the road.

AND SHE'S ALIVE~!!!

Nothing like tearing out of the driveway to blow the dust off the car, slam on those rusted brakes to 'clean them up' and launch again.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to drive. Small, fast, low... and harsh. Every little bump; but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

What next? Well there is still that 'missing' power since the VRIS timing is off. Anyone have any genius ideas? What EPROM/Computer has the proper VRIS points for the KLZE Curved neck manifold? Remember I've got a OBDII setup.

So I'm thinking Window switches are going to be the way to go, to time the VRIS points properly.
But... to do that, I'm going to need to dyno test her to see where those cross points happen to lie...

Does anyone know of a place in the Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge/Guelph area who has a dyno?