In my last post I mentioned an electrical problem which was dogging the ignition, and me. I had replaced the points, which were shot, and the condensor, which we thought was causing the weak spark from the HT lead. This didn't help. We ruled out the coil, because the car didn't start either from a known good coil.

In the end, it was chiefly the coil that was at fault, since it was arcing from the top to the bottom and apparantly this is pretty rare in Amazon coils. Luckily I have sourced a replacement coil and armoured cable, so this is now straightforward.

Has anyone else had this kind of coil problem?

Hoping to roll into Monday on full power...

Tom

Hello Tom,

You say in your first paragraph that you eliminated the coil as the cause of the failure with a test with a known good coil, but the car did not start.

Do you have the car running yet with the test coil?

If not, did you remove the small trigger wire from the old coil before testing?

Did you check the wire connection at the distributor post and the post itself?

It is rare for the original Bosch coil to fail in this manner, but not an uncommon problem in the realm of ignition coils.

I have a mist bottle filled with water and a small amount of Dawn kitchen soap, that I use to spray on ignition wires, distributor caps and of course coils.

When sprayed on a running engines the spray on the outside of ignition parts will sometimes exhibit an arcing situation that can indicate a faulty part.

You may not always be able to see the arc, but you can sometimes hear it and sometimes, if the arc is severe enough, it will affect the engine idle.

If you can hear the arc and want to try to see it, you might wait until it is dark outside enough to see it while spraying the engine.

Do not try to see the arc by runninng the car inside a closed garage, ya know, because of the fumes.

Eric
Hi Performance Auto Service (formerly OVO or Old Volvos Only)
Torrance, CA 90501