Speaking of coils...

[Corley]

Here is something to ponder regarding ignition coils:


Lets say you have the high tension wire removed from your coil. Next let's say you open and close the points, causing the coil to trigger a spark. Where do you suppose that spark goes. It has no lead outside the coil for it to be able to jump to ground, but the spark has to go somewhere.


Next, let's say you pull a plug wire while the engine is running, but don't hold the plug wire close to any metal. This causes the same situation, the spark has no place to go, no path to ground.


What happens in these cases is that the spark jumps inside the coil, creating a path to ground. Now you can probably get away with doing this a few times with no real harm, but if you do it enough, the path inside of the coil will start to form a carbon trail, and before long the resistance of the carbon trail inside the coil will be less than the resistance of the jump from rotor to plug wire terminal, plus the resistance across the spark plug. OK, since we know that electricity takes the path of least resistance, the spark will then jump inside of the coil, instead of across the spark plug.


When this happens, more carbon is added to the carbon trail inside of the coil, and eventually the coil is worthless, as the spark won't come out of it, it would rather take a less resistive path inside the coil. This is something to think about next time you do something that leaves the coil high tension side with no path other than jumping internally. You are harming your coil by doing so.


Moral: Don't do it.

[Flathead]

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You get extra points if you try that with electronic ignition. Electronics don't like that at all.