i think my ignition coil is pooched cause my car wont start. to make the long story short i did a compression test last night and didnt take out a fuse to disable the ignition so i think its fried. how do i check to see if my coil is still good?

 

have somebody start the car and pull one of the ignition cables
away from its post on the distributor......
make sure you are not touching the fender and hold the cable by the
boot....

you should be able to see some sparkk...

 

You need to use an ohm meter and check the resistance across the primary and secondary connections. The specs should be:

Primary winding resistance
0.6-0.8 ohms

Secondary winding resistance
12.8K- 19.2K ohms

 

how do i do that?

 

bump

 

Stick the ohmmeter probes on the coil output (looks like a spring) and the wire with the circular loop. That will tell you the secondary winding resistance.

Then you measure primary winding resistance by probing the two wires next to each other - the circular looped one from above with the square-looped one just above it.

You have to remove the cap, rotor, and shield to be able to access all of the points.

I did this recently on a failed-to-start GS-R. The secondary winding resistance was slightly less than the minimum.

 

As far as purchasing a new coil I would advise against buying one from Autozone. Everytime mine has gone out it is always more convienent to buy from them to then to go with the dealer one, but I have gone through 6 coils from Autozone! 4 of them wouldn't bolt up right. I would try to align the bolts but no luck. I would then go to autozone and get another and get the same damn thing.
Anyways might just be my bad luck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TnTGSR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As far as purchasing a new coil I would advise against buying one from Autozone. Everytime mine has gone out it is always more convienent to buy from them to then to go with the dealer one, but I have gone through 6 coils from Autozone! 4 of them wouldn't bolt up right. I would try to align the bolts but no luck. I would then go to autozone and get another and get the same damn thing.
Anyways might just be my bad luck</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree. I usually don't purchase OEM maintenance parts, but when it came to the ignition coil I went OEM. Contact Len, he gave a good price on my igniton coil.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IN VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Stick the ohmmeter probes on the coil output (looks like a spring) and the wire with the circular loop. That will tell you the secondary winding resistance.

Then you measure primary winding resistance by probing the two wires next to each other - the circular looped one from above with the square-looped one just above it.

You have to remove the cap, rotor, and shield to be able to access all of the points.

I did this recently on a failed-to-start GS-R. The secondary winding resistance was slightly less than the minimum.</TD></TR></TABLE>

did all of the following this afternoon. the secondary winding resistance was 11 K-ohms and in my haynes book is said it should be between 12.8 and 19. since it was this low could that be the problem its not starting....ill go and buy a new coil tonight if so

 

ttt

 

The known good coil I took out of my car measured in b/w the specified numbers. It had 90k+ miles.

 

I'll give you my ignition coil for your 94-97 passenger turn signal.... it works

 

no, thanks for the offer...

 

when coils start to go bad, does the secondary winding resistance tend to go towards lower resistance or higher resistance?