Ok, my car has been running badly(detonation) for awhile so I replaced the plugs, wires, Distributor, cap, rotor, ignition module. I have an accel coil also. After doing all this and still running bad, I decided to switch out the coil with the stock one. Did that and it ran great! Then i realized that whenever I touched the coil bracket to the mounting bolts or the manifold, there was a small spark and the car would stumble and almost die. I checked the polarity of the block and it is negative. The coil didn't have a charge.

I cannot figure out the problem. I have to have a place to mount my coil, so please help!

 

Ryan,

I killed a six-pack, and felt no remorse whatsoever.

The coil you have may have been mis-marked or improperly wound. Call me stupid, but if it's running great, what's the problem?

 

It runs fine until I try to bolt down the coil, then it sparks and stumbles. Can't drive around forever without the coil touching the intake.

 

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just guessing, but since it is unlikley that you got two bad coils in a row.
are all your ground straps hitched up good? both body and engine to the battery?
did you plug the coil in backwards? it sounds dumb but i'm sure someone out there has tried it. i am personally prone to doing a tune-up and forgetting to put the rotor back in the dist and then bitching because i can't get it started for 10 min.

when did this start happening? abetter description of the problem, when it started, and what all you did, would help the diagnosis

give us more info and keep us informed.
jess

 

Is it better to go with aftermarket or stock coil?? My coil is sparking on the front side of it, consistantly.

 

I have pretty much decided it must be a loose ground strap or something, I'm gonna check them all tomorrow. I'll keep you guys posted on what I find.

 

I looked for improper grounds, found none. I decided to start it up to see how it ran, and it is running bad again. I tried several different coils, none helped. There wasn't a spark between the manifold and coil anymore. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to run any better. I retarded the timing as far back as I could. After a few minutes I couldn't even get it to start. So I pulled a couple of plugs and they were sooty black. Does this mean it's burning oil? When it would run, I could rev it and there would be a little smoke come up from between the engine and firewall.

Anybody have any ideas? I'm all out.

 

the sooty black plugs are from improper spark. your fuel is going in there and you are not getting a good enough spark to burn it all clean. hence the spark is now grounding out instead of jumping the gap and you can't start your car. replace your plugs.
you need to seriously check your entire ignition system.
bust out the volt meter, perform all your checks. take the ign module to a parts store and have them test it. make sure you have everything plugged in right, timing set right (with esc disconnected).
you said you did an ign. tune up. how did it run after? the same, a little better? worse?
make sure your wiring harness grounds are good because it won't spark without and a bad connection could cause these intermitent problems.
let us know what you find,
jess

 

if you use the same plugs(that are fuel fouled) the car will run like **** for awhile. then it will come out of it, I would try using them just clean em off and run the car fro awhile. saves some money :-)

 

what exactly do you look for when looking for an improper ground? It just being loose, or the wire messed up?

I checked the battery to block and battery to body grounds, they are good, and the two on the backside of the heads. Are there others?

The distributor, cap, rotor and ignition module are all brand new MSD. The wires are brand new Autolite 7.5mm's. I am getting new plugs tonight. Probably a new stock coil too for testing purposes.

I don't have a voltometer and wouldn't know what to check if I had one.

I just wanna get my car running again! It's been down for about three weeks!

 

what exactly do you look for when looking for an improper ground? It just being loose, or the wire messed up?
look for loose wires and signs of corrosion which impeeds current flow.

I checked the battery to block and battery to body grounds, they are good, and the two on the backside of the heads. Are there others?
yes, there should be 2 or 3 ground wires in the wiring harness that bolt some where to the intake

The distributor, cap, rotor and ignition module are all brand new MSD. The wires are brand new Autolite 7.5mm's. I am getting new plugs tonight. Probably a new stock coil too for testing purposes.
did you install the distributer right, set the initial timing? do you still have your old setup to use for testing purposes? did you plug it all in correctly?
87trans is right about the plugs burning themselves clean, but your ign sys has to be working good and you have to pull the plugs to clean them anyways, so why not change them and be done with it.
you should still take your ign module in to autozone to get it checked, for free, to make sure you didn't get a bunk one.

I don't have a voltometer and wouldn't know what to check if I had one.
i don't have my chilton's in front of me so this is from memory.
double check this!!

front of car
O
A B
C D
rear of car

A to C - should get some continuity, close to 0
A to D - should high, but not infinity
D to ground - should be infinity
O - is coil wire for reference
make sure these are the right checks.
if any of these fail, then the coil is bad.
there should also be 12 volts or greater feading the coil

I just wanna get my car running again! It's been down for about three weeks!
if all these ign. components check out, then it is your ecm or chip.
i'm don't remember if anyone checks ecms or chips. if you have access to a spare, you may want to check it out.

 

sorry about that man. that can suck when your car doesn't run. um for the grounds check the cables themselves and make sure the connectors and where they connect is clean. and a volt meter is like $20 at radio shack, that'll come in handy with that.

 

still not quite sure what you mean about the whole voltometer thing, but I will check all these things out tomorrow, weather permitting.

i'm pretty sure the distributor is in right, because I have had it run perfect with it in.

WHere exactly on the intake are those grounds? I didn't see any.

THanks for all the help guys!

 

I finally got a chance to work on my car again today, out of necessity, since my truck blew a head gasket.

Ok, I put in new AC Delco R45TS plugs, and a new stock coil.
I also tightened up the passenger side head ground a little, it was kinda loose. The plugs that were in there were R43TSK plugs, maybe this matters, I dunno.

The car is drivealbe now. That's about all I can say.

I couldn't even set the timing to 0* or it would die, I had to set it very retarded. It runs a lot better when the tan wire is hooked up. It still has a bad miss at idle, and when you put it in gear it tries to die.

I'm thinking maybe the ignition module died when the coil was shorted out, I dunno, gonna get it tested.

There is a ticking from the passenger side cylinder head towards the back.

If the ignition module is ok, and I still can't get it to run any better by next week, I'm gonna put it in the shop because I'm getting tired of F*cking with it.

 

After driving it all day today, I've found that it runs a lot better over 2000 RPM than below, and it has a very bad idle. It sounds like popcorn. It will idle somewhat in park, but as soon as I put it in gear it will die. So I have to give it some gas when I put it in gear to keep it running, same thing when I stop, tries to die. But, it runs well the rest of the time.

Forgot to mention earlier, but I lowered my FP also by two PSI(it was way rich)

Oh yeah, I got my ignition module tested and it is good.

 

have you checked your ignition wires? you could have a bad one. I did and it made it miss (run bad too) under 2000rpm and would die of and on. just something to think about.

 

Ok, the wires are brand new, and they are all ok.

I checked the polarity coming out of the coil and it is both positive and negative. I'm guessing it's grounded out somewhere, but I don't know where. i'm gonna recheck everything.


Ok, I rechecked everything, can't find any problems. Whenever i unplug the esc module, nothing changes, does this mean i have a bad esc module?

 

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Ryan,

There really should be NO electrical connections from either of the coil windings to the case of the coil.

The fact that there is no apparent change when you unplug the ESC bypass wire should be verified with a timing light.

That may prove key in solving your situation.

 

Lil outta place, but... does the MSD 8.5mm Superconductor wires come with the Coil Wire included??

 

Ok, I took the car to a shop yesterday, supposed to be one of the best in town, and they said that since I have removed the cat back that they cannot diagnose the computer because there wasn't enough backpressure for the 02 sensor to work.

So they set the timing for me, they said it was set 5* advanced.
Today I am taking it to a different shop. I know some people up there, so hopefully they don't give me some bs line.

The car is running ok, but I know it will just get worse as the coil dies from being grounded out.

 

The shop called me today and said that the car is running really rich, which is fouling the plugs. The FP is set at about at 11psi at idle and 15 at WOT. They have not been able to find out why it is burning up coils, all the voltage checks came out ok. The 02 is reading 700mv. That's all I can remember right now.

 

wow that sounds rich to me, my shop told me the average fp for my car, "its a 84 305" is 6fp at idle and 9fp WOT, i don't know what kind of engine you have, i just figured i may try to help