Electrical

[alanshapiro1963]

Can't figure out why that I have gone through 2 rotors, dist caps and 1 coil this season, cant figure out whats tha problem..Help!

[hanleyclifford]

Welcome to the forum. We may be able to offer some help but need a little more information. Tell us about your distributor, Delco or Prestolite, points or electronic igntion, type and ohm rating of coil if you know it, spark plug type and ignition wire type. Also, we like pictures! Stay in touch, Hanley

[Al Schober]

If you have a std points/condenser system, try a different condenser. A bad condenser (even if new) will cause points and other ignition parts much grief.

Al

[rigspelt]

What problem is the engine having? Why are you replacing ignition parts?

[Dave Neptune]

alan, you may look at the plug/wires. If they are old and have a lot of resistance built up in them they can cause an additional load on the parts you mentioned. Also you could have a moisture problem under the cap, although a rare occurance.

What are the symptoms?

Dave Neptune:cool:

[mike7a10]

Hanleyclifford...(et al)

I totally rebuilt my A4 and got her installed about 2 months ago and it has been running like a sewing machine. Until yesterday...motored and motor sailed for about 6 hours and the engine suddenly died instantly. No hiccup...no sputter...just stopped as if someone turned off the ignition switch. I was pretty confident that the coil had overheated as it was really hot yesterday (around 94 degrees or so) and the engine was running at about 175 degrees. I have a centercockpit and the engine well air temperature was very hot as well.

I continued to sail and let it cool down for about 10 minutes and it started right up but then died as I increased the throttle. Sailed for another full hour to the marina and restarted the engine and it ran OK...I kept the RPM's down around 1200 or so and kept the engine temp under 160 degrees. No problems and it ran fine back to the slip.

So in researching why I had a sudden shut down (I am almost 100% sure it is electrical/heat related) I saw you were asking about the different coils and whether there are points or electronic ignition.

Interestingly (to me anyway...) I had switched out my electronic ignition and replaced it with a back up set of points/condenser set up. I am running the NAPA coil with internal resistance. Could this combo be causing my electronic system to overheat? If so I can switch back to the electronic ignition. (I had switched it out as I had thought I shorted it out when I caused a quick spark to arc but I am not sure if it actually damaged or not. I can slap it back on to see if it is OK.) Mainly though if I am running an internal resistance coil with points/condenser...is that OK??

Otherwise I saw that I have the coil bottom resting on the top of the block where it sits in the coil bracket. I was thinking that maybe I should raise the coil so it is not actually touching the engine block to avoid direct transfer of high temperatures and maybe this caused my coil to overheat.

Thanks for any info/advice in advance!

Mike
S/V Plan Sea
Punta Gorda, FL

[hanleyclifford]

As a first step check your primary circuit starting at the ignition switch. Check for voltage and continuity all the way to the coil. Also check for resistance in the coil and wires. You may have an intermittant open circuit. Neil may have some more detailed thoughts on this. Regards, Hanley

[ndutton]

Looks like Alan hasn't been back since his original post so Mike, you're up.

I agree it would be better to mount the coil with a little clearance on the bottom. I don't have a reason, just seems better to me.

A very easy test when your engine shuts down is to immediately connect the often mentioned alligator clip jumper wire between the starter post and the coil positive. If the engine runs your problem is ignition wiring/connections/switch. If it doesn't, hello coil (or maybe something else).

Note that if the engine runs with the jumper, the only way to shut down is to remove it. If it doesn't run with the jumper, you still need to remove it.

FWIW, before switching to electronic ignition my points/condenser/4 ohm internal resistance coil combination worked fine. Any reason you reverted to the points system?

[Kelly]

Hello Mike-

Just as an addition to Neil's post...I think keeping the coil off the block is a good idea in order to avoid unnecessary vibrations (something coils seem to dislike). I have found that this area of the block doesn't get very warm.

Along the same line, a piece of rubber gasket material cut to insulate the coil from its bracket may be advantageous as well for the same reason.

[mike7a10]

Thanks guys! I will try out the suggestions (and I will also reinstall the electronic ignition).

I appreciate all of your insight and suggestions!

Mike
S/V Plan Sea
Punta Gorda, FL

Just say no to hurricanes!

[alanshapiro1963]

Thank for all the responses, my problem is I noticed smoke coming from under the distib cap. I removed it and the rotor was melted and the inside of the cap was burnt. So today 08/17 went back to the boat with a friend who has some experience with engines. we notice the pick up sensor was cracked and burnt. It is an "ignitor brand" weird part is I just replace it in June and can't figure out what keeps happening. My friend mentioned we should replace everything with a new ignition from Indio a complete set of everything to avoid this problem again

[rigspelt]

Can't figure out why that I have gone through 2 rotors, dist caps and 1 coil this season, cant figure out whats tha problem..Help!

What problem is the engine having? Why are you replacing ignition parts?

Thank for all the responses, my problem is I noticed smoke coming from under the distib cap. I removed it and the rotor was melted and the inside of the cap was burnt. So today 08/17 went back to the boat with a friend who has some experience with engines. we notice the pick up sensor was cracked and burnt. It is an "ignitor brand" weird part is I just replace it in June and can't figure out what keeps happening. My friend mentioned we should replace everything with a new ignition from Indio a complete set of everything to avoid this problem again.

Sounds like a problem in the ignition wiring circuit that is overloading the distributor and coil. I'd be drawing a schematic of the charging and ignition circuits and tracing every wire and component in the system, looking for a wire connection issue or a shorted component, I think.

[smosher]

Whats the model number of the napa coil, the Atomic 4 needs 3 ohms
resistance on the coil. Some coils have 1 ohm resistance. The 1 Ohm coil would
draw 12 amps vs the 4 amps the 3.0 ohm coil, this increase amperage
would generate alot more heat at the contacts. Folks here are using the ignitor with good results and a 3 ohm coil.

Steve

[breweraz]

The post just before me is exactly what happened to me. i went to the NAPA store and the guy at the counter said yep got that coil and off i went. A week later the same stopping problems you had. I started looking at the coil and it was very close but differnt so back to a differnt part store and they looked up the NAPA PN and sure enough it was a 1.5 ohm not a 3 ohm resistance coil. Upon close inspetion the damage was close to what you had not as severe.

Burn on the end of the rotor
The lead wire from the coil to the distributor was starting to burn
Points were burned.

After replacing it all no problems since with the condenser and points and she starts up great. As far as the guy at NAPA I guess it was my fault for not checking the specs.

Tim