Just installed rotor, cap, cap adaptor, and plug wires for TR upgrade using suggested Ford parts . It drove AOK and was awaiting the TFI ignition coil / regap plugs . I notice that there seems to be several posts regarding ignition timing issues associated with the TFI ignition coil . Can anyone comment as to why there might be a necessary change in timing as the new TFI coil is installed ? I tried to install the TFI coil yesterday and could not get the engine to fire . I uninstalled it until I can better understand what might be happening here . Also , I noticed that the coil to cap center wire did not fit properly . Anyone else experience this ? The primary wiring was routed as follows : green wire to neg on TFI coil ; the double yellow to + on the TFI coil . Open to suggestions as to how to proceed . I expected it to fire up right away .

Ignition Woes

IMHO timing is not the issue. Over the years of owning the Jeep, masking problems becomes an issue. If the Jeep is put back to "Factory Specifications" it will run, and run well. However:

1. who the heck knows really how to do that?
2. And if they did could they really afford to accomplish the task?

So, the next best thing is here a tweek here, there tweek, everwhere a little tweek-tweek. With each tweek the owner puts the vehicle a little farther from vehicle specificaitons. The problem that necessatites the tweek has not been fixed. It's only been "worked-around" by the tweeking. Each time the Jeep runs a "little" better with no explination. Then one day all the tweeks cascade and the Jeep dies and the owner says: "But it was running so well, I don't understand what happened?" There is great truth to the statement. The owner really doesn't know!

So now you go and put on the TR upgrade and it's really a matter of two things:

1. Backing out of the "tweeking" that's been done over the years.
2. Perfoming new "tweeking" for what would be Spec. on the TR upgrade.

So, it boils down to is all this tweeking normal on most of the upgrades?

In a nutshell.... yes, it just depends upon what the defination of tweeking is.

Heh heh heh, LEVE can back me up on this, he knows my jeeps history with the TR upgrade

Many tweaks had been made to my jeep over the yrs. and they werent all done be me, the preious owners had down them, and that is what makes them a problem. When i had swapped all the stuff into my jeep for the TR upgrade, i couldnt make any sense out of the wiring. then a thought came to mind. i remembered that my jeep was originally a 151 ci 4 cyl. so as it turns out, the 151 was a GM engine, and that meant it used a HEI style ignition. HEI used a totally different wiring set up, that some jacka$$ poorly retrofitted for the 258 ignition system that was presently installed. creativity and logic and of course the BBS guys solved the problem.

countless tweaks get made to all our jeeps, and it is nearly impossible to untweak them all.

Justin
www.geocities.com/jeepboyjus
'83 CJ-7, 258, TR ignition, headers, T5/D300, 3" suspension, 1" body, Moser 1 pce axles, Model 20, 3.54:1

If your coil to cap wire did not fit then that's most likely your problem. The wire sets come in various flavours. Some are TFI coil to cap, some are cannister type coil to cap (sounds like what you have, and some have both. Carquest part number for the wire set that has both types is:

Plug wires 6643

The advantage to this set is that you can leave the cannister in place as a backup (you now have the wire).

hope this helps...


“Most people would die sooner then think - in fact, they do so.”

I agree that your coil wire to distributor is most likely the problem. Get the right type of terminal on that wire. Also, if you look inside the connector on the coil where the positive and negative wires go you will noticed that the terminals are labeled as to which is positive and negative.

'75 CJ5,258 w/Howell EFI,T18a,4.27's,33's,On-board air,Warn 8274

I instaled all TR/TFI parts with out adjusting my timeing. No problems. my timeing is set at 7 BTDC. The new coil may change timeing some but no enough to cause problems.

Wilhelm

I just installed the TR TFI Ignition upgrade last weekend myself, and didn't touch the timing at all. Runs like a gem, but not much differently than it already did since I put the Weber carb in. Now THAT was a hugely noticeable jump in performance.

Mostly the TFI coil, 8mm MSD wires, and bigger cap/rotor cleaned up a sometimes-rough idle when first warming up. Seems a lot smoother now overall, not to mention I feel a whole lot better with a mostly-new ignition system. The old setup left me stranded a few times recently. Still on my first gas tank but I'm hoping to see a little better mileage as an added bonus.

DesertRat

90 YJ, 258 I6. Weber 32/36, TR TFI Upgrade, the rest is stock Sahara.
<font color=blue>“It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.”</font color=blue> - Dick Cheney

Thanks for the comments . My understanding is that several folks did not need to adjust the timing . My Jeep is stock with the exception of the in-progress ignition upgrade to TFI / Ford / TR Upgrade. So, I am suspicious that the poorly fitting coil cap wire was the culprit . In a few days , I'll get to re-switch the stock cannister coil for the TFI and use a more suitable wire cap .