please i need help with a ka24de (i think its the distributor)

[niceassfd]

hi everyone! i just bought a 96 240sx for my little bro as a graduation gift. the dude i bought it from said that the car idles weird because he replaced the distributor. he said the car ran fine until the distributor went out and when he installed the new one he didn't know he had to match everything.
i looked all over zilvia and found numerous threads, but i don't know if my situation is similar. i found links in the threads to

http://www.ka-t.org/tech/ and
http://www.240sx.org/faq/articles/timing101.htm

i am going to try to do those proceedures again with my little bro, but i wanna see if you guys got more inputs.

i also read that it could also be the fuel filter, spark plugs, or vacume lines.

any input will be greatly appreciated, i want to try to get this running fine so my bro can start driving it to school his senior year. thanks in advance!

allen

[niceassfd]

oh yeah. so i started the car today and i would need to give it gas to start it. and when it idles it would go from ~800-900 to ~200 (about to stall). and when i was driving it home from the dudes house the car would jerk a lot and when i go from a start i would have to gas it extra. thanks!

allen

[smily_vigor]

Yeah it sounds like your timing is off. The distributor takes care of ignition timing so when the guy replaced it he didn't put it back properly so now the timing is off. In the service manual it shows you how to set it back. Check in the tech section of this site.

[aznpoopy]

the car starts and runs, so the timing is probably slightly off.

the dist has two bolts that hold it in place. loosen them and you'll be able to adjust timing. you basically turn the dist left or right until the car starts idling alot better. if you find you dont have enough room to get the car idling smoothly, the distributor is installed one tooth off. you need to remove it, turn the rotor one tooth and reinstall it. keep trying until you get the range of adjustment you need.

to get the timing down for real, you need a timing gun. your local autoparts store should have one.

[SR240DET]

Originally Posted by aznpoopy

the dist has two bolts that hold it in place. loosen them and you'll be able to adjust timing. you basically turn the dist left or right until the car starts idling alot better. if you find you dont have enough room to get the car idling smoothly, the distributor is installed one tooth off. you need to remove it, turn the rotor one tooth and reinstall it. keep trying until you get the range of adjustment you need.

please dont do that with out the timming gun... to properly set timming you need to adjust the idle on the IACV to the right RPM... so i suggest downloading the FSM here *click me* then follow the instructions....

get a cheapo autozone timing gun and you hook the Green gator clip between the distributer and #1 spark plug wire.....but first... grab the spring they give you and kinda twist the spring on the plug wire and hold it a aginst the distributer where the plugwire goes and clip the gator clip on the spring...

[projectRDM]

Originally Posted by SR240DET

please dont do that with out the timming gun... to properly set timming you need to adjust the idle on the IACV to the right RPM... so i suggest downloading the FSM here *click me* then follow the instructions....

What is a timming gun? Never heard of it. I know what a timing gun is though.

[aznpoopy]

bah, you can totally do it without a timing gun... lol

guess we're more ghetto up here in jersey then you guys in sunny florida.

[smily_vigor]

Yeah man you can do it without the gun if it's only a little off. Why spend money that you don't nessisarily need to, he could be on a tight budjet for all we know. If it's way off then for sure you need the gun, but if it's one or two teeth you can get away with doing it the "ghetto" way.

[niceassfd]

thanks for the help so far you guys my brother and i greatly appreciate your help.


thanks for the link SR240DET imma read up on it today.

Your right smily vigor i am on a tight budget, but imma go to kragens and see how much the timing gun will cost.

[aznpoopy]

Originally Posted by niceassfd

Your right smily vigor i am on a tight budget, but imma go to kragens and see how much the timing gun will cost.

despite what i said above, i do recommend getting one. as you guys now own a 240sx, you're probably going to need to use one repeatedly in the future.

[niceassfd]

well my brother and i drove to our nearest kragen in the s14, when i warmed up the car it would idle weird like jump up and down from 1400rpm to 400rpm and after it was warmed up and we drove it around the car started idling normally at 1200 and every 2 sec it would sputter and make the needle jump up like 500rpms. so after it was warmed up the rpms wouldn't just jrastically jump like it would when it was cold. do you guys still think its the timing?

oh yeah we checked out the timing guns and they aren't that bad priced so we are both gonna chip in and get one.

thanks everyone for your inputs.

allen & john

[pwhitersxs]

Honestly to me, it sounds like the distributor in there is bad. Usually when the distributor is going bad, it will jump around a lot and not hold a steady rpm. That problem can still exist if your timing is really really off, but usually the ecu will balance it out. Also, make sure you are getting proper fuel prressure as well and change your fuel filter if that has not been done yet. If you set your timing correctly, and the rpm's are still jumping, I would try a new distributor.

[SR240DET]

hahaha timming gun... my bad..

i would do what aznpoopy said when i first install a distributor... just get it to idle right and from there you can correct it with the gun... shit...... the gun is only 16-20 bucks... and you can charge like 3 friends 10 bucks then get your money back and then some....