At 08:56 PM 7/27/2000 +0000, Eric wrote:
>....
>I put the Lucas Sport (40,000V) Coil in while keeping the spark plug leads
that have been in the car since I bought it - 2 years ago. .... At 'the
track' the other day I felt she was lacking a bit of power .... pulled #1
lead off .... noted the distinctive click of that spark escaping elsewhere.
.... noticed pitting where this lead brushed against the coil.
>
>Do you think this bigger, hotter, mightier spark was showing up weaknesses
in the lead?
I think the problem was there before, and you just may not have noticed
until you were driving it hard on the track. When you pan the throttle the
cylinder pressure rises, which increases the resistance at the plug, and
since the spark will always find the path of least resistance it then has
the tendency to go elsewhere.
All other things being equal, the new coil probably had nothing to do with
it. However, if you increased the plug gap at the same time you installed
the new coil, then the spark voltage would be increased, leading to a
greater tendency to arc through bad or marginal wire insulation. Like
anything else, when you find a bad part it needs to be changes, but don't
blame the wrong part for the problem.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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