At 10:13 PM 8/3/04 -0300, Malcolm Jeffcock wrote:
> What are symptoms of a bad coil ? My car has been acting odd,
> once warm it sputters and coughs at about 3,000rpm, if I slip it out of
> gear allowing revs to drop to about 1,000 it is fine until it climbs back
> to 3,000. I changed condensor with no resulting change....
Yeah, an old coil can do that. As the internal windings break down the
thin insulation and proceed to short some windings together, it can draw
higher current and generate more heat while making a weaker spark. As it
nears the end of it's last legs the first motable symptom can be misfire at
high speed. As it gets worse the speed for misfire drops lower ane lower
until it can hardly run at all.
This ailment is particularly sensitive to heat. When the coil gets hot the
symptoms get worse. In the early stages of (eminent) failure it can
recover when it cools off and may run normally until it heats up
again. But it only gets worse with time.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com
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