no spark! 87 4kq

[Shawn Manny]

you are right, thats what my meter said..definetly no money to burn
(makes me wonder why I picked this car for my base) but I DO
appreciate your opinion, i've found a few others things to try first.
I will post my finidings after this weekend.

Shawn


On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 16:12:14 -0500, Edward R. Wendell IV
<erwendell at mac.com> wrote:
> Disclamer: no BTDT on a 4q
> 
> So with the ignition on, engine not turning you measure 12v and with
> the engine cranking you measure nothing as in absolutely nothing (zero)
> or just a "garbage" reading other than 12v?
> 
> The reason I ask is, in general, digital multimeters, especially cheap
> ones, are useless on any sort of switched/intermittent voltage. The
> internal brain just isn't fast enough to keep up. When the engine is
> cranking the coil is being alternately grounded/ungrounded and with the
> low resistance of the coil and a slow meter it may be normal to measure
> something close to ground on either terminal of the coil. I believe
> that the position sender in the distributor is a hall effect type so
> you may be able to see the switching of the coil if the engine is
> turned over by hand (disconnect the hight tension lead and ground it so
> the engine doesn't start with the wrench in the pulley) but not knowing
> the behavior of the ecu/ignitor combo I can't say that for certain.
> 
> I don't know about 4k coils, but I've had a lot of old cars with a lot
> of miles on them and never had a bad coil. I tend to think that the
> replacement coil biz (at least for the older type round can coils) is
> driven purely by mistaken identity as to which component of an ignition
> system is at fault for a no spark condition.
> 
> In short, don't go installing a new coil without further guidance and
> testing unless you've got money to burn.
> 
> Roy Wendell
> Morgantown, WV USA
> 86, 87 5kcstq
> 87 MR2 times 2
> Three turbos, two quattros, too much fun
> 
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