> But... I do know that there is one less chaffed wire that leaks high
> voltage.
> ...
> I did find a wire that was chaffed in the harnes that goes from the
> distributor to the coil, among other places. Quick question before I
> relate how new hairdos can be aquired while working on a LBC. Should
> there be high volts in this bundle from the coil to the distributor?
No, there shouldn't be any 'high voltage' (as in 'ignition' spark high
voltage) on the coil primary wire. So, unless there was a static
electricity type of spark that jumped to your hand, I think you just
experienced some good ol' inductive "kick." I discovered this when
I was a kid, playing with a flashlight battery and an old transformer.
You see, I have 4 sisters .... >:^) (evil grin)
(You may skip the rest of this if you really don't care about the anal
retentive ramblings of a software cum electrical engineer. ;^)
The voltage across an inductor, like a coil primary, is proportional to
its inductance times the rate of change of the current through it. When
the points in the distributor open, there is a rather large negative di/dt
(like, infinite!), which is, of course, what causes the sparking voltage to
appear in the coil secondary. Now, if the coil were perfect, all of the
energy in the primary would be turned into energy in the secondary, and be
sent to the spark plug. But the coupling between the primary and secondary
of a coil is not all that good (a side effect of needing 40,000 volts of
insulation between the coil primary and secondary windings!), so some of
this energy stays in the primary inductance. The effect of this is that a
large negative voltage appears across the coil primary when the points
open, which can be on the order of about a 100 or so volts.
In my stint in T.V. repair while working my way through college, you weren't
considered initiated until the first time you got "bit" - Welcome to the
club Bruce!
Pat Vilbrandt John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. Everett, Washington USA
UUCP: pwv@tc.fluke.COM or: { uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft }!fluke!pwv
ARPA: fluke!pwv@uw-beaver.ARPA
"Can't wait until I get the car back into the condition I was
going to disassemble it to"
-TeriAnn J. Wakeman
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