Spark plug wire, bad connection

mdrichey

1990 Pat Car VIN 2L-20859-DO

I've been having an intermittent spark issue lately. I thought I had traced it to a bad ignition coil. I swapped it out for another I had on hand and, boom, she fired right up.

Fast forward a couple days later and the issue has returned. I am now thinking I am not getting a good connection on the coil side of my plug wire. The wire I'm using was purchased from Vintage Carts.

What wire are you using? I thought about getting one from Rockauto or my local parts store but I'm not up on the terminology for the end connections.

Also I am getting 11.5v at the coil.

If anyone has experience with this issue I'd appreciate any comments.

Thank you.

BGW

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backyard

What is the batteries voltage when you're checking the coils voltage? 11.5v is awful low.

A bad condensor will do what you're describing. No more than what they cost I would just change out the points and condensor and retime it. 230 or 250 6 cylinder Chevrolet points and condensor should fit it.

mdrichey

Thanks for the reply!

I will check the battery voltage tomorrow. It is a new battery and I just took it off the trickle charger before driving today.

My cart is a 1990, I believe, and uses the ignition module rather than points and condenser.

backyard

Yes your right on the ignition module. You said you just threw another coil on. Did you check the resistance? You may have had an externally resisted coil which is hard on the ignition modules without some resistance added.

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/gas-h...resistors.html

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/gas-c...formation.html

mdrichey

Yes, both the old and new coils were within the correct ranges for resistance.

I am leaning towards a loose connection somewhere since usually when I get it back into my shop to check for spark and put everything back together it will fire back up. I'm thinking driving it over my bumpy property is causing something to come loose.

I'm going to recheck my grounds and take the battery voltage today.

Thanks for the help.

kantuckian

Am Having same problems will stop or not start by time i get seat up to check it will fire right up might run 3 or 4 days and do same thing again

mdrichey

Battery is around 13.2v at time of starting and drops a negligible amount.

I checked the voltage at the coil again. 12.3v when starting then voltage fluctuates erratically and ends up at 0 and the engine dies.

The resistance side of my multimeter is acting strangely so it looks like I'll need to get a new one.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

backyard

Did you mean when starting the engine the battery reads 12.3v and the coil also reads 12.3v? You said battery 13.2v which can't be right unless the engine is running.

mdrichey

Sorry, they were both reading 12.3v.

After posting that the cart fired right up and hasn't died on me yet.

I'm at a loss.

Lochlin

Keep eye on those ignition modules. Historically, those things have been all or nothing meaning they work or they are dead. More and more though, I have been seeing them where the heat impacts them meaning they will work when then are cool and fail when once the engine heat gets to them. Have you noticed at all that your cart goes into "fail mode" only after it's been driven for awhile?

Either way, you may want to put some dielectric grease between the ignition module and the motor to help make sure it's grounded good and to help with heat dissipation.