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Re: Sport Coil

To: Luckyone@sympatico.ca
Subject: Re: Sport Coil
From: ArthurK101@aol.com
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 12:58:52 EST
Cc: triumphs@autox.team.net
In a message dated 14-Nov-01 15:23:57 Eastern Standard Time, 
Luckyone@sympatico.ca writes:




> Art,
> 
> Was wondering, how do you test the voltage of your coil?  Is there a
> special instrument that will tell you how many Kv you are running?  I have
> been wondering about this for some time, and I have only been able to tell
> a weak coil by its spark.  My multimeter goes up to 1Kv  :-)
> 
> Steve
> 





Steve,  I took mine to to a local auto repair shop (1968).  The tech told me 
to bring in the coil; I hadn't told him exactly what my problem was, only 
that sometimes I had a problem starting the car.  I brought in the coil, he 
put it on his test bench and he then described exactly what the symptoms were 
that I was having.  I replaced the coil, solved the problem and, more 
importantly, learned a lesson.  

I have taught logic/rhetoric at the college level for many years and use this 
as an example of  faulty logic.  What I tell my students is: 

 "Following a flow chart type diagram in one of my Triumph repair books, I 
tested the ignition system.  Each time I passed over the test for the coil, 
figuring that the coil must be OK since I had a "good" spark visually.  Hell, 
I replaced the points, plugs, wires, virtually the whole ignition system. It 
was only after I had the coil tested (and found the low output voltage) and 
replaced it that I solved the problem.  My faulty logic was assuming that the 
coil was OK, thereby not testing it because I did not have a voltmeter with a 
high enough range at the time."  My stubbornness about fixing it without any 
help was what kept me from going to a place with the right equipment to test 
the coil.  As I said "faulty logic" on my part caused me to replace things 
that did not need to be replaced and to not test and replace the defective 
coil.

Art

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