Cosmos99

So I replaced my coils about 2 months ago and the "christmas tree" went away for 1000 trouble free miles and came back. I noticed the sparks at the coil terminals so I ordered new coil wires and just put them on and I am still getting the christmas tree and also arcing at both coils...Dielectric grease did not help on the older wires and I am reluctant to put it on the new ones. I understand that electricity takes the path of least resistance but I am stumped. No arcing on any of the other wires. Both caps and rotors are new and were replaced at the time of the coils. Anyone have a educated guess?

darth

Check your connections making sure each connection at the sparkplug and the cap are pushed on all the way. If that doesn't help - New spark plugs, coils, caps and rotors all at one time before the problem has a chance to affect your new wires. Replacing hi voltage parts piecmeal isn't the best way to fix this issue as the old defective parts tend to break the new parts. Why the reluctancy for the dielectric grease? It can only help the situation, making dissassembly in the future easier, by acting as a lubricant.

Indycam

Don't be , always use it , from the first day to the last day .
Dielectric grease is your friend .

Did you put the new wires on ?
Do you still have the spark leakage at the coil tops ?

Cosmos99

I put the new wires on and there is still arcing at the coils...The only reason I was hesitant on the dielectric grease is that it seemed to make the connection on the old ones worse. It didn't have that tight snap when pressed in. I will try it again after the sun sets and see what comes up.

Indycam

So we know it was not the wires .
Bad cap / bad rotor / bad plug .

Indycam

Dielectric grease is not a cure for leaky spark ,
do not hope that it will fix the problem .

Cosmos99

I agree. I am planning to break out the ohm meter and get to work on it tonight. Battery ground was cleaned and in perfect condition. Caps and rotors are new but I will take a look at them tonight too.

cscrogham

Do you still have the original rubber boots in place that fit on the top of the coils? They protect the #1 and #15 wires and keep arcing from taking place.

Also, take the caps off and make sure both rotors are locked (ie-spin only when the engine is turned over). Belt in the distributor could be broken which causes all sorts of craziness but the car still runs ok.

darth

What do you plan on checking with the ohm meter? If it is to check the resistance of the spark plug leads that isn't gonna help much. The problem that tends to arise with spark plug leads is the outer insulation breaks down allowing the high voltage to leak. If you've replaced the spark plug leads then maybe you got a bad set. I remember someone here having to replace a new set because they were defective or were damaged during installation. The second set resolved the problem. You want to avoid bending them at sharp angles and in general try not to put too much strain on the wire itself but rather grab the boot to remove them much like you should treat an extension cord by pulling on the plug rather than the wire. Don't treat the wires like you're starting a lawnmower .

Cosmos99

Are you talking about the plastic caps the cover the coils? If so I have them off to check for sparks. If there is some other covers my car never had them.

Indycam

Bad / broken insulation on new wires will not cause arcing at the coil tops .
The factory wires are copper . They are had to break as they are flexible copper wires . You would have to be very very brutal to do the copper wire itself damage .
I say it was not the old wires and is not the new wires that is causing the arcing at the coil tops .

Cosmos99

Indy do you have any suggestions on what I may be? Are the new coils already bad? They are the Brazilian Bosch ones.

Indycam

Caps / rotors / spark plugs / distributor belt .

Are the tops of the coils badly tracked ?

Are there sparks jumping from the two coils ?

On the normal path to ground the spark jumps the gap between the rotor and the cap and then from the
one side of the plug gap to the other . The distance the spark has to jump to ground via the normal path is not far compared to the distance the spark has to jump from the coil top to ground .

Brazilian coils are known to fail by not putting out a spark .
They are not know for causing the spark to jump to ground at the coil top .
You could buy and install another pair and see if the old/new set was "bad" .
You could end up with a pair of spare coils , and thats not a bad thing to have seeing as they are Brazilian .

Cosmos99

The tops of the coils are in perfect condition. The sparks seem to be only at the positive and negative terminals. I cant tell if the are jumping from the bottom of the coil wire where it seals on the coil or not. Very small sparks but they are still there.

I am going to check the caps and rotors again but they should be good because they have less than 1k on them.

Cosmos99

Thanks so much for taking the time to help.