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Ya I was pissed I missed one last week for $10 Used...but what the heck right?
The used $10 EZL's come from Russia by way of Washington State and carry a $75 or $85 shipping charge. The vendor says most of them have 40-50KM or so but I don't believe that claim. You can generally buy US sourced EZL's for $100 or so on ebay.
I recently had intermittent ignition problems with my 91 300TE (245K miles). The car first started missing intermittently when warm and then after 50 total miles of operation since the intermittent missing began refused to start warm (it had the audacity to leave me stranded for the first time in the 130K miles I have owned it. After the car cooled down it started and ran fine a couple of times until it finally wouldn't start cold. When attempting to start the car at this point the engine locked up (I wondered if the timing chain had slipped a tooth or two) and backfired through the intake manifold (indicating improper ignition timing) before it finally wouldn't "fire" anymore. Although I could hear the fuel pumps operating, I sprayed starting fluid into the air cleaner and cranked the car to make sure it was getting fuel. It didn't fire once. Next, I cranked the car with the coil wire disconnected from the distributor and observed a healthy spark firing at what seemed to be the appropriate intervals. I checked the distributor rotor and since the resistance of the rotor appeared too high I replaced it with a new rotor I had available. Still no start. I suspected the CPS or the EZL was the culprit. Since it was easy to check the status of the CPS, I measured the resistance (800 Ohms) and the cranking voltage (.4V AC) and found all to be within specs. Although I am not in the habit of throwing parts at a problem, since I needed to make sure the car was operable within a very short time period, I ordered a coil and CPS from an online source and purchased a used EZL from ebay. I installed the ignition coil first (the easiest to do) and the car wouldn't start. Next, I installed the used EZL (next easiest to install) and the car wouldn't start. Finally, I installed the CPS and the car started without problem. When I removed the old CPS I noticed that the seal around the wires at the sensor itself had failed and moisture/oil had penetrated the area. It is a mystery to me why the voltage and resistance measurements of the old CPS were within spec and the system appeared to have good spark but I guess that happens sometimes. Because of the backfires I did try to use my timing light to get an idea of the timing situation but because the light was not bright enough at cranking speed, I could not confirm that the timing was off (although I know it was due to the backfiring). I pose this question to the experts like stevebfl, etc.---How could a defective CPS presumably retard ignition timing to where the engine won't run yet still seemingly operate the EZL/ignition coil properly?
Mark