<VV> Coil voltage

[Bryan Blackwell]

Hi Hugo,

Most Corvairs (and I assume other Chevies of the same vintage) have a resistor wire built in to the harness, thus my question.  The answer is it should be 12V open, and 6 or so closed.

When I say 'waaaay advanced' I mean you can't even see the timing mark, it's got something like 40 degrees in it.  The distributor was replaced with a complete fresh rebuild from a well known rebuilder (Ray Hatchell) and the advance turns the right way and is free.  I've driven a car with the advance backwards, it started and idled fine but had no power.  I also verified that TDC on the pulley (not balancer) corresponds to #1 being at the top of the stroke.  This one does odd things at any point, although it starts best after sitting for a day and seems to get worse if it's been run for any length of time.  Tried a couple coils too, that was the first thing that crossed my mind.  No dice.  I'm going to power the coil directly from the battery next to eliminate the rest of the wiring.

--Bryan

> On Mar 19, 2019, at 4:44 AM, Hugo Miller via VirtualVairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:
> 
> Is there a resistor for the coil? That will indeed drop the voltage to the coil in the 'run' position, but I'm not sure if a voltmeter will pick that up. The meter will not draw enough current to 'activate' the resistor, which will only restrict the voltage when you are trying to squeeze a large enough current through it.
> Also, would you get ANY reading when the points are closed? I would have expected zero volts? These are just my thoughts, not gospel. And this doesn't explain the symptoms anyway. It will only run with the ign timing way advanced? That makes no sense. How far advanced? Has anybody checked the centrifugal advance in the distributor? Get a good timing light on it & see what you find.