My gut instinct says it is ignition related. Had a similar problem many years ago with my 280Z and it ended up being somewhere between the distributor pickups and the coil. I say somewhere between as I replaced both. Another time I had some similar poor run symtoms caused by my it was my airbox. I simply cleaned the hardware associated wth the flap and that cured it.
distributor magnet and bizarre behavior
What effect would a cracked magnet have? Would it still be usable? Even though cracked, I can feel a pull on each stator vane.
Explain this. Now I do not have the vacuum advance in as it was inop...and the reluctor was somewhat higher than the stators since the bearing assy was missing. Drove out a couple miles. It ran, still had the miss, and I've put 40-50 miles on it like this. Then it began sputtering as if the timing was off...no power... I could get about 1500 rpm out of it and it would idle. About a mile later it was hot, not the coolant, but smoke was coming from the engine where it was burning any oil on the block and smoke was coming out the PCV and Cat.
Now I'm thinking the cat is clogged...something is. It is sputtering out the rear. Shut it down, opened the hood; it cooled for a few minutes. Cranked it up and retarded the timing a tad. Yep, no light, did it by ear...but it ran GREAT! No sputtering, no missing, revved real strong. Shut it down to tighten the timing bolt. 5 minutes later went to start it and it ran like doodoo. I was doing good to get it home. Makes me wonder if all the problem isn't ignition related and something clicks every now and then and it works. Can the ignition module do this? Once the Maxima is back up, I can swap the distributors again and see what happens. last time I did this it ran better but the miss was still there. Couldn't have been the ign module as they stayed with the dist casing.
Ideas please
Explain this. Now I do not have the vacuum advance in as it was inop...and the reluctor was somewhat higher than the stators since the bearing assy was missing. Drove out a couple miles. It ran, still had the miss, and I've put 40-50 miles on it like this. Then it began sputtering as if the timing was off...no power... I could get about 1500 rpm out of it and it would idle. About a mile later it was hot, not the coolant, but smoke was coming from the engine where it was burning any oil on the block and smoke was coming out the PCV and Cat.
Now I'm thinking the cat is clogged...something is. It is sputtering out the rear. Shut it down, opened the hood; it cooled for a few minutes. Cranked it up and retarded the timing a tad. Yep, no light, did it by ear...but it ran GREAT! No sputtering, no missing, revved real strong. Shut it down to tighten the timing bolt. 5 minutes later went to start it and it ran like doodoo. I was doing good to get it home. Makes me wonder if all the problem isn't ignition related and something clicks every now and then and it works. Can the ignition module do this? Once the Maxima is back up, I can swap the distributors again and see what happens. last time I did this it ran better but the miss was still there. Couldn't have been the ign module as they stayed with the dist casing.
Ideas please
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Talked with my retired Nissan man. He said he had an 83 once that did the same thing. Had that weird miss then it was ok yada yada. He said Nissan's spin was grounding wires. There is 12v to the injector and the ECU sends the grounding signal. If there is bad grounds, and Nissan had a habit of bundling them together, you'd get a weak signal to the FI. But don't let me keep anyone else from commenting. If it is happening to me, someone else is not far behind.
I had an MSD distributor with a cracked magnet.As long as the two pieces stay close together,it'll run.My symptoms were the car would shut off driving down the road.Just like you turned it off.As soon as i hit the key it would light right back up.Untill one day......It shut off and that was that.Replaced the magnet and away i went.
Good luck finding that magnet now. I just ordered 3 from Rockauto. They are the last survivors. I glued my magnets together and could "feel" a pull, but once broken that will create a series of North South poles that may screw things up. Not sure how it gets its signal. It'd be great if we could get some explanation from Tony about now.
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