The factory ballast that drops the 12v to 6v (nominal) on rubber-bumper cars
is a length of resistance wire contained within the loom which is why you
can't find a specific component. It has a white (early cars) or white/brown
(later cars) at the fuse-box end and a white/light-green at the coil end.
The factory systems, whether points or any of the various electronic-trigger
systems, always had the white/light-green extended to a spade on the
solenoid which provides a full 12v to the coil during cranking. No idea
whether the Mallory needs this or whether providing it would harm it, but
without it you are only going to get about 4v at the coil during cranking.
You *can* get an intermittent coil, but it *usually* manifests itself when
the coil is hot i.e. after it has been running for a while. It is quite
possible that as the ignition components deteriorate over time they reach
the point at which the spark energy drops below that which is required to
start the car under some circumstances. My own factory V8 has a tendency to
quite suddenly become hard to cold-start, then run poorly until properly
warm. Replacing the plugs always cures it completely for several thousand
miles.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Huber <rickhuber1@home.com>
To: <mgb-v8@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 2:18 AM
Subject: Intermittent Coil Problem ?
> What happens is that just after starting and before the engine is warmed
up,
> ...
> So my question is, is there such a thing as an intermittent coil ? I'm
thinking
> it could be connections, but Dave said he really didn't find anything
> disconnected. This happened about 1 1/2 years ago, when after swapping my
> clutch, it started right up, then while sitting at a stop sign about 2
blocks
> from the shop, it just died. Cranked and cranked, did some
troubleshooting, and
> discovered no spark from the coil. I took out the new coil, put in the
old one,
> and it started. At that point, I figured it was a bad new coil, but now
I'm not
> so sure. I think I'll try to put the new, supposedly bad one back in this
> weekend and see what happens.
>
> Any of this sound familiar to anybody ? Anybody have a clue what's going
on ?
///
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