06 club car Ignition Coil testing

[Mrl510]

Hi just ended up buying someone else’s problem, 2006 club car precedent with the Fe350d. I bought the cart knowing it didn’t run but was told the engine is fine. Anyways, when I got it home and put a battery in it and mashed the pedal, nothing. It didn’t turn over or nothing. So I jumped out the solenoid and it turned over.(also should mention the guy had several wires undone). When I got turned it over by the solenoid it didn’t have fire. So not knowing any better I took the coil off and ohm checked it according to a video I watched. I put a lead on the metal body and one on the spark plug end and didn’t have any ohms just infinity/open. According to the video, that indicated a bad coil. I had resistance between the metal body and the ground plug. But before I ordered a coil I checked a few other things out. Turns out the limit switch on the shift lever wasn’t making contact and supplied a constant ground to coil. Hmm it definitely shouldn’t fire like it was , so I decided to just slap the coil back on and wala it started sparking with a screw driver in the plug boot to ground. (It wasn’t a pretty blue spark)

My question is this, the cart is not put back together fully yet but I know the engine fires up and runs now. Since the coil didn’t ohm right according to the video would you replace it or throw it all back together and roll with it? It takes a minute to put it back together and disassemble it again if I end up having to replace it, not to mention the 3 days it would take to get another one.

Also, one issue as to why it wasn’t turning over initially is partly due to the switches in the gcor being broken/fried from the recent owner screwing around I think.

Thanks,
Matt

[CP241]

First thing is first, you need to reconnect all the wiring so it is wired like it should be. Otherwise this will prevent it from turning over, sparking, running, etc. The solenoid is driven off of the microswitches on both small terminals, so any of the microswitches being bad or disconnected will create problems.

What kind of meter are you using? Some cheaper meters wont read above approx 2k ohms. And did you remove the spark plug boot from the wire when you tested it?

I dont recall the specific readings, but from memory here is what they should be

Metal.body to end of wire ~8k ohms
Spark plug boot's screw to plug connector ~5k ohms
Metal body to wire tab ~1ohm

When you test the speak best thing to do is put the plug in the wire and hold the threads of the plug against the metal valve.cover. you can watch the spark jump the gap, it should be blue.

If the spark is yellow or if any of the resistance tests dont match up, replace the coil with an OEM coil. Dont get an aftermarket or you'll likely get to replace it again in a few months and the aftermarket ones arent much cheaper than the OEM ones. Call david hicks of revolution golf cars and hell get you the best price on a genuine OEM coil (if you need to replace it).

[Mrl510]

Hi thanks for the response. I’m testing using a Fluke 376 meter. Not a very cheap meter. But I did my testing with the boot off and just touched the wire in the insulation. I just don’t understand how it still sparked/run when the coil showed to be bad by checking it.

[CP241]

A lot of times theres a bunch of dirt and stuff on the body preventing the meter from getting a good connection and a good reading.

Hard to say without seeing it myself, what kind of readings do you have?

[Mrl510]

Hi , between the body and the ground tab I get 1.7-1.8 ohms and I get OL on the body to the plug wire and OL from the plug wire to the ground tab. It’s just crazy that it still sparks and will run. (Given I didn’t run it hard just idled for a second since the carts not back together yet). I guess I’m just gonna order another coil to be safe. Is there not a aftermarket coil that anyone recommends?

[CP241]

I'd replace the coil then. It may spark but once under load may not spark well enough to run at that time.

Dont do an aftermarket coil. Seriously. Get a genuine Kawasaki coil. Aftermarket coils are junk and with as difficult as it is to access the coil, this is a job you only want to do once and be done with it.