Re: Electrical gremlins... no power to coil

["therealdmcvegas" <DMCVegas@xxxx>]

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Travis Goodwin <tgoodwin@xxxx> wrote:
> I traced my non-start problem back to the coil. I pulled the coil 
wire and
> looked for a spark to jump the gap. Nothing.
<SNIP>

Be careful! The potential for shock is dangerous as all hell! You can 
easily get killed, or maimed! If not by the shock itself, it can be 
anything dangerous that you'll hit when you jump back! 

If you need to check for spark, pull a sparkplug wire off, and 
connect it to a another sparkplug, and lay it on the intake manifold. 
That'll create a ground, and you can SAFELY view the spark jumping 
the gap. Otherwise, I found a tool @ Pep Boys that allows you to view 
spark on the coil wire by touching the sheilding with it. It looks 
like an ink pen, and contains a small tube with neon gas that 
illuminates when voltage goes thru the wire.


> When I go to start the car I am assuming I should have 12V across 
the coil,
> which I do not at the moment. I checked voltage on the right side. 
The
> voltage from the resistor is ok and I have continuity and ground to 
the
> capacitor. The trouble seems to be on the left side. I've got 
nothing coming
> from the White/Slate wire that leads to the ignition control behind 
the
> driver's seat.
<SNIP>

The White/Slate colored wire delivers impulses from the Distributor. 
The Distributor rotates, and creates the pulses. These pulses are 
then used to trip the RPM relay, drive the Tach, and supply engine 
speed info to the Ignition ECU, and the Ignition coil. If the motor 
is stopped, you won't recieve any voltage/signal on this line.

Which reminds me. When you tested for voltage output from the 
Ignition Coil, were you cranking the motor, did you have the RPM 
relay jumped, or was the motor off?

-Robert
vin 6585 "X"