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Re: [T3] Testing out a coil, car not starting


On 2 Sep 2006 at 18:06, Constantino Tobio wrote:

> So, my 73 Fasty won't start. From the looks of it, I'm not getting
> spark- holding the coil wire near a ground shows no spark whatsoever,
> and I smell fuel in my exhaust, so I'm pretty confident that the fuel
> part of the operation is good.
> 
> I get voltage to the coil- on both sides, but I also get voltage on
> both sides when the points are open. I tested out the points and
> they're not shorting. I swapped in a new condenser, but this was just
> throwing parts at the issue- both condensers are Bosch, as are the
> points.
> 
> Disconnecting terminals 1 and 15 of the coil, and putting a multimeter
> across both lugs, gives me a resistance of zero ohms, and running the
> meter for continuity test shows it's indeed continuous across the two
> lugs. Resistance from each lug to the coil wire connector is around 8k
> ohms. I'm reading that resistance across 1 and 15 should be more like
> 20,000 ohms.

Some time ago, I worked up a mathcad program to show the spark energy 
as a function of RPM and coil style for the stock VW/Bosch coil and 
the German Bosch Blue coil. I measured several stock coils to get an 
average and came up with a primary resistance of 3 Ohms and a 
secondary resistance of 9.3 kOhms for the stock VW/Bosch coil, so 
your numbers don't sound that bad.

The zero you measure for the primary makes me wonder whether your 
Ohmmeter just isn't on a low enough scale (or doesn't have such a 
scale. For comparison, you need to measure something else that has a 
known resistance in that same range. Measuring between the 2 posts on 
the generator (with the DF wires off) should give you 3.5-4 Ohms, 
IIRC.

> So, indeed it appears that my coil would be shorted across the two
> windings somehow.
> 
> Is this diagnosis sound? The coil appears to be an OE black coil, best
> as I can tell its the one it came with.

Still, given what you've told us. A bad coil, with shorted turns 
somewhere sounds like the only remaining possibility. Yes, I have 
several good ones here. If yours is actually a genuine original, that 
would be the first one I've heard of that went bad. OG coils will 
have the VW & Bosch part numbers stamped on the bottom.  

> If I do indeed have a sound diagnosis, Jim- I may be interested in one
> of your OE black coils.

Yes, I've still got some. I've never had a bad one.

Just saw your second post. It's quite possible to have just a few 
turns of one of the windings short out to one another. This will 
still ruin the coil even though the change in measured resistance is 
insignificant.  

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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