Can anyone out there give me some basics on what I could be doing to cause my coil to go bad?

Ever since I installed a complete new wiring harness from front to rear I've been having problems.

The car idles good & runs good to a point. However, as I begin to really twist on her she begins to miss & stumble. Before I did the wiring harness upgrade she would up pull very strong up to 6800 rpm. Since the wiring harness up grade she begins to have major problems beginning at about 5200 rpm.

During the past few months since the wiring harness upgrade my tach got to acting funny & jumping all over the rpm range. I was running a Protronix Unit in the Distributor & Protronix Coil. I replaced the coil & my tach went back to working correctly. The miss that begin at 5200 rpm didn't go away.

About two weeks ago I drove the little drop top in the Labor Day Parade. During the parade she stumbled & quit. She started back up and I made a right hand turn at the corner. I got about a mile away from the parade and she quit all togather. The coil was so hot you couldn't touch it. I went back for my trailer. Picked up the old Protronix Coil and took back with me. By chance I put this unit on the car & she fired right up. Now tach is jumping all over the place again.

I could go on & on....Sorry for such a long description. Does anyone know what I could have wrong with my wiring set up that could damage my coils & cause my engine to stumble beyond 5200rpm? :confused:

If using a Pretronix coil & module/distributor, and it is wired according to their instructions exactly and electric system voltage is correct, then it appears alittle more engineering is needed.

Coils get hot due to current flow through the primary winding depending upon dwell time, the "on" time the coil has current flow from the module. Higher RPM, more current flows.

Possible bad crimp in the primary side of the coil causing a resistance?

alan

I'm not familiar with the wiring instructions for you igniton so take this with a grain of salt.

If you're setup requires resistance in the coil's primary (ballast resistor or wire) and you don't have one, the coil will overheat. Often times the coil will bludge out on the bottom and may even crack along the top.

Similarly, if you have resistance in the primary circuit when their shouldn't be, the ingition could be starved for voltaged.

Alan & Dave,

I appreciate both of you taking a moment to offer some advice. I will double check my set-up. Thaks for the advice.

Sincerely,

Jason Moore