Testing ign coil

[mattkh 0]

Hi

Plugged a plug at the end of the coil ht lead and turned the ignition ON and OFF a few times.

Only got a spark a few times when switching OFF.

Should it spark EVERY time ?

Does this mean the coil is faulty OR the ignition switch OR the TCI-H unit .

Cheers for any input.

[dirtytorque 0]

it will only spark whe the ecu de-energises the coil by grounding the negative coil connection.

The ecu will only do this when it senses an rpm signal from the hall sender on the dizzy....

 

whats up?

[mattkh 0]

Hi

Thanks very much for the quick reply.

It seems to be missing which could be fuel or electric. Just trying to rule out the electrics before going on to fuel.

Soooo from what you are saying, with a stationary engine and turning the ignition on and off, you will only get a spark from the coil if the dizzy happens by chance to be at the firing point i.e. hall sender magnetic field interrupted.

[dirtytorque 0]

it will only spark when the hall is generating a tach signal.Tach signal is only generated when the dizzy is being rotated by the engine.

The best way to check for spark is turn the engine over and use a timing light on one of the ht leads to see if it pulses.

If you don't have a timing light then some people hold a ht lead along with its spark plug to the block to ground it.

Then turn the engine over .

Obviosuly the spark plug should be seen to ignite.

You can get an electric shock doing this though and I personally wouldn't recommend it.

Do a search on here or any car forum/google for that matter on checking for spark.