Nissan CA18 troubleshooting

[anthonemorris]

So I've found the root cause of all my stress. Seems the pin that is supposed to hold the gear in place on the distributor shaft has disappeared somehow. I found it strange that the rotor had 360? free spin/play, so I went to investigate further and found this

 

[anthonemorris]

So all is well that ends well. Finally got the car started and firing in proper order. Also did a radiator "upgrade", if you'd call it that. Turns out the number one cylinder is on the passenger side of the car closest to the distributor. Just to set up idle speed and timing by ear and take her for a much needed sprint.

 

[nirtime]

Wow! What a break through you made there! You did a good job documenting the process and I hope that anyone else who has this problem with their CA18 if they're not familiar with it, would come across this thread.

 

[anthonemorris]

Alright so now I'm doing some tuning by ear. So far the idle adjustment is a bit off but still figuring it out. Just hot hold of the factory service manual for the car but not one for this particular engine. It helps but will continue to use the skyline settings for now