Now hear the story of my optispark ordeal!!!
Sorry for the crappy picture quality, used a kodak polaroid and a wired scanner!!!But i think you can get the idea here!!!
You can see here the center contact point has been obliterated and totally removed...note the burned out rotor next to it on the left!!
Here is what the Front of it looked like when we pulled it out!!!Note there is a hole where the center contact should be!!!
The story!!!
What an ordeal...
It all started on Tuesday the 22nd of September, qwith a 170 mile drive to west palm beach (i live in orlando). Half of the drive was pure hell cuz i was pouring, not good for a lowered Z!!!Anyways..we get there..i started noticing hesitation problems after we exited the highway!!
Sept 23, Wednesday, leaving to go back to orlando, I notice a bad hesitation at 2000rpm, the car wont accelerate unless i back of and light throttle it,,past 2000rpm shes fine. SHe made it back to orlando nop problem,,got home at1:00pm.
5:30pm or so..i go to start her up, starts fine....put here in reverse to move her and she dies, never starts again..no idea whats wrong..won;t kick over, and i kill the battery trying to start her.
I call my friend Larry, and we try to figure out whats wrong, I am guessing optispark, but havent done a visual inspection yet,.
7:00p.m.Jack her up and put her on jackstands, look underneath, i note coolant on the lower crank, harmonic balancer. NOthing else.
Thursday evening, back under there draining the coolant, preparing the car for operation on saturday 26th. My friend larry said to get the car ready as much as possible.
As i get done under the car, I catch a glimps of the optispark from the corner of my eye (Hard to see cuz its behind the main crank). I notice a BLACK HOLE on the optispark, i put my finger in it and I can TOUCH the rotor inside!!!!
Sonofabitch I say to my self, no wonder the car wont start!!!In amazement, i realize what needs to be done!!!
Sugery, repair list and outline
Parts list
Optispark rebuild kit:NAPA auto parts part#RR218
Comes with a cap and new rotor and plastic internal cover!
PRocedure
This is for 93-94 cars,,,but pretty much the same for later models<
We first started by draining the cooling system
Drainded the radiator, then removed the crank pulley (I have an LGM pulley that got seized on the crank...pulley puller necessary if this happens..make sure you set it up right!!!>
then disconnect hoses from the water pump (Watch out for coolant and fluid that may still be in there and the block)
Unbolt the pump from the block (3 bolts on each side for my car use 14mm deep well)
Then remove the <3 for my car> bolts holding the optispark to the car.
Om the 93's it is splined on the back, Must note orientation when removing so that it goes back in same position!!!)
Also i think that it is keyed, so it only goes in one way!!
To remove the optispark, the crank must be oriented in a way so as not the obstruct the optisparks path, 2 of the prongs must face up to form a sort of "Y"
Kumar, my other friend and a genius, finally figured out that you could bolt in 2 of the crank bolts (Not all the way) and use a screw driver or something to turn the crank, so you can use one bolt as a fulcrym and act on the other one...REMEMBER the orientation of the crank and pulleys when you remove them as well...could unbalance alot of thinngs if not properly reinstalled
OPtispark Repair
Now here is the clincher..you will need one two things
An E4 torx socket,
Or a Torx screw
The reason for this ,is that there are 4 MALE TORX SCREWS that hold the optispark's cap on to it...IT is hard as hell to find a E4 torx socket, cuz no one knows what the hell they are or where you can find it!!!!
What we did was went to builder's square and using the male screws that came with the kit, matched torx screws that would fit snugly enough on the MALE screw so that we could turn them when held fairly tightly
Use a vice grip to hold the screw while loosening the male screws, you may also need to file down the head of the female screw as 2 of the opti;s screws are recessed...just file until it fits in there!!!
THen..unscrew the cap, remove and look at all the crap and burnt out contacts...93-94 optisparks were UNVENTED, i had a lot of shit in there..dirt,crap whatever that just sat there while the rotor fired away!!!
The rotor is held on by 2 teeny-weeny torx screws ..they are femal..just find something small enough to remove them!!
Then replace the parts as need be.....
All in all not as bad as i thought it would be, the worst part was draining the coolant system, Had to do it twice because my water pump failed!!
But thats another story...I hope this has helped some people with the facts and info about the OPtispark...
I personally learned alot from this procedure..and had alot of help from 2 great guys, Kumar and Larry!!!
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