Car died on freeway

spade33 · May 14, 2010

I do have a spare coil actually. I tried replacing it before but never tried any voltage tests. I will try that with a new one. How many Volta should the battery have when I put a multimeter on the positive and negative. The battery in there has been cranked alot. I may go take it to checker to have them charge it

Rusty67 · May 14, 2010

The battery should be between 12 and 14.5v.

ic237 · May 15, 2010

spade33 said:
I do have a spare coil actually. I tried replacing it before but never tried any voltage tests. I will try that with a new one. How many Volta should the battery have when I put a multimeter on the positive and negative. The battery in there has been cranked alot. I may go take it to checker to have them charge it

The battery should be 12(weak) 12.75 (fully chargerd).
When you are cranking; it is normal to see 9 to 10 volts when the starter is engaged.

You can Test the coil simply by doing an ohms check. Depending on the coil you could have 3 or 1.5 ohms. Somewhere in that range is okay. If you want to see if its working properly apply 12 volts to it and check the current going through the coil. For a 3 ohm col expect 4 amps. A 1.5 ohm coil expect 8 amp.

ic237 · May 15, 2010

spade33 said:
But and idk if this works but when I put the negative side of the multimeter on the neg battery post and one in a plug wire I had off the engine I got nothig at all or maybe .35 on my multimeter. Is this normal?

Are you measuring the voltage between the negative side of the battery to a spark plug wire? You need to be CAREFULL. Thats atleast 15 KILO VOLTS minimum! You will fry your meter, and shock the crap out of yourself.

spade33 · May 17, 2010

So currently I have the new dist. In the car. And I tried hotwiring it basicly which to my understanding should take out alot of the variables that would be causing this issue by bypassing them, but still nothing. Would this prove to me that the problem must be my coil? I was think either that or a groud. Because I've replaced the coil. I went through and checked the block to firewall and the one from the starter solenoid. Cleaned them both and still nthing. Am I missing a groud somewere? Any ideas haha it's been a week and driving my roomates beetle around isn't fun

woodsnake · May 17, 2010

Did you do any kind of a voltage drop test?

Rusty67 · May 17, 2010

Disconnect the coil from the distributor and then connected it to a +12v on the positive side. Momentarily ground the coil and then unground it. See if this makes the coil produce spark. If not you have a bad coil.

spade33 · May 17, 2010

No I havnt tried a voltage drop. I've been reading on here a link I found and I'm just trying to figure it all out. Can I do it with a multimeter? If so what so I need to put it on for the starting circut. Sorry if this is confusing. Idk electrical at all really. This is at least a learning experiance. Haha

hhead · May 18, 2010

Do you have an aftermarket tach hooked up?

spade33 · May 19, 2010

No no tach

woodsnake · May 19, 2010

Google is your friend...

How to Voltage Drop Test Your Car

Battery post to terminal end, terminal end to starter, etc.....

spade33 · May 19, 2010

So quick question if this is normal. With the key in the on position I have 12v on the negative post of the coil. Or well 11.53v. So my question is should I hav voltage on the negative side. Or is this normal because the coil has power and it transfers over?

ic237 · May 19, 2010

spade33 said:
So quick question if this is normal. With the key in the on position I have 12v on the negative post of the coil. Or well 11.53v. So my question is should I hav voltage on the negative side. Or is this normal because the coil has power and it transfers over?

You are reading through the coil. Since the coil is a long piece of wire, the 12on the positive post will show up on the negative. The ground from the distributor is not active. When the distributor calls for a fire, the 12v u see will dissappear.

spade33 · May 21, 2010

Thank you woodsnake for that link, it really made everything make more sence because just reading it confused the hell out of me. Im going to do a test as soon as i get a chance (probably 20 min or so). anybody have an idea of where i should start? Can i go straight to the coil and then start working my way back from there if the drop is too large? also to test the negative side how would i do that with the negative side of the coil recieving power?

woodsnake · May 21, 2010

Start at the battery.
Post to post, post to lead, lead to solenoid, solenoid to starter.
You are trying to find out where your voltage drops to the point that the starter won't spin, or why you don't have any spark at the plugs.....

"Symptom to system, component to cause".....
If you have a loose wire on the starter because it was hit by a rock, that will cause your symptoms.....

Rustylid · Jun 6, 2011

Any resolution to this issue? I am facing similar problem. No or insufficient power to coil when wired normally. I can start the car by jumping from Batt pos terminal to coil pos terminal.

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