<VV> Coil voltage

[Hugo Miller]

How on earth do you get a centrifugal advance to work backwards? If you 
are running with a spark at 40 degrees advance on the crank, then 
something is clearly wrong. What happens if you set it correctly?


On 2019-03-19 12:51, Bryan Blackwell wrote:
> 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.