What is the best way to check if a coil is bad? I disconnected the plug wire going from the coil to the distributor at the distributor and cranked over the engine. I could not see a spark.
Maybe you didnt get your eye close enough to the end of the wire. Actually, although they can go bad, its very seldom. You running points or electronic ignition? BTW, you got my face shield.
Dennis, I'm running pertronix. You have my face shield. We will reswap next meeting. I thought it looked different.
Get a multimeter.... Check DC voltage at the positive terminal of the coil. If you're getting the proper voltage (my '72 Mercury comet shows 12, ) then you gotta check the coil itself.. IIRC, you can do that by testing the resistance across the primary and seconday connections (Primary = resistance across the + and - terminals, secondary is across the + terminal and the big distributor wire gap, ) (IIRC, of course. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. )
i would say you are "wrong" but i don't know what you are talking about...so you must be "right"..frank...
Why couldn`t ya turn the ignition on , then pull the coil wire off the dizzy cap and try to ark it on a ground ?
you could see it better if you...pull wire from dist. cap and hold it...have someone hit the starter...this way you get a better feel for how good it is firing.... ...frank...
I've got spark!!!! I had my wife stick her tongue on the end of the coil wire while I cranked it over.
And she hasn`t killed you for doing that ? I need to see if I can get my sister to "help" me find out whats wrong with the van . You just never know , it could be the coil :evilsmile .
I wonder, "have you replaced the condenser?" That happened to me back in the 80's, the darn thing went bad,---yeah, I'd replaced the coil, the cap, ya*da, ya*da.......turned out to be the condenser.... Good luck.
