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Re: trouble in paradise


On 15 Aug 2003 at 5:53, Air Cooled wrote:

> The wire you are speaking about only carries 12V, and I believe its 18awg so
> it cant really carry anything more than about 16 amps. While technically
> still enough to kill a person, its extremely unlikely (if not impossible) to
> get shocked (or even feel anything), from the current in that wire.

While it starts out as 12V, when the points open the inductive flyback of the 
coil pushes it up to a couple hundred volts. It's just a very brief spike, but 
that's the spike that the coil (a transformer) steps up to 10-20kV. You're 
right that there's not enough current there to hurt anyone, but it can still 
hurt if you touch it. 

You have to actually touch it, however. A couple hundred volts isn't enough to 
jump out to you.

> More than likely you were getting the voltage from the spark plug wires

Right.

-- 
Jim Adney
jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711-3054
USA

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