Ummm...

In my experience, an erratic or inconsistent spark is something in the distributor. The coil either works right, causes a weak spark, or doesn't work at all. The one exception to that might be if it works for a while, heats up, becomes intermittent, and then stops working. But the coil is an amazingly simple and robust part compared to all the fiddly, moving, flopping and wearing parts in a distributor. So while checking (swapping for known good) coils isn't a bad idea, try the dizzy, too!

Personally, I'm running a blue coil with the Allison (now Crane) ignition unit, with no problems. But I've also heard that this isn't the 'best' setup....

Toby

Uhh... I have never used to blue coil, but heard good things about it.

But I both my cars use the red coil and both use points, and the cars run really nice.

When I suspected that the coil in my 122 was dead, I went to a salvage

yard and got a coil from a random car (it was a 6 cylinder 2 door BMW)

and wired it up to the battery directly (and then wired it up to the

distributor). The car worked fine. This probably isn't as well engineered

as bosche wanted, but it certainly worked well enough to make the car go.

I'd just wire up an old distributor you've got sitting around to a relay

connected to the ignition switch; use a starter button instead of the

key breaking mechanism volvo designed, and ignore the armored coil in the

122. I used a bolt hole from the bracket holding the (dead) brake booster.

chris