mrjosh43

I've been trying to track down a no start problem on my car, and decided to test the ignition coil today. I followed the test proceedure at Clark's Garage, but I wanted to check with those more knowledgeable before spending more money.
I connected a ground wire from a spark plug to a bolt on the cam cover, and connected the coil to distributor wire to the spark plug. I connected another ground wire to the negative terminal on the coil. With the ignition in the on position I tapped the coil ground wire on the negative battery terminal. No spark (maybe one very weak spark). I also tried connecting the spark plug ground wire to the negative battery terminal to verify I had a good ground for the spark plug with the same result. Looks like I have a bad ignition coil... what do you think?

SidViscous

Sounds like a good possibility. Particularly if you got that weak spark, means you were doing it right.

Coil is realitvely inexspensive, so replacing it will be like $60 + the frustration of getting it out.

Worth a try, newer coil certainly can't hurt either.

mrjosh43

I was thinking of replacing the coil anyway. Like you said, it can't hurt... especially for $60 (seems small at this point)

MachSchnell

My suggestion, stay Bosch OE...I had nothing but crap from the MSD Blaster that I bought from Lindsey (not a problem with Lindsey at all, just that the MSD fit like crap and really SHOULD have had a resistor...)...I replaced with an OE Bosch and have had no more problems since then.

mrjosh43

Thanks! You just answered my next question.