• Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Register for our forum. Even if you don't want to post, you can still 'Like' and react to posts.

coil gets hott!!


this isn't much help but.......seems to me.....in the OLD days, there was a Heavy Duty wire going from the ignition switch to the ballast resistor.....
the H. D. wire would get warm & the ballast would get HOT.....
then there was a medium size wire from the ballast to the coil.....and normally the coil would get very warm, but not hand-yankin hot....

:icon_bounceblue:
 
Should be around 11 volts when you're starting the engine and around 8 when it's running.

I don't believe that it matters which wire you use... I just tapped into one under the hood that was hot in run, and put the ballast resistor in line with that.
 
That 95 van came with a E-coil on it stock, so got a bad one.:bawling:

No, I had replaced the stocker with an Accell unit on the first tuneup. It lasted maybe 4-5 months before coming apart. The underhood temps in an econoline van will rival anything in arizona. I once had it vapor-lock in Nevada due to the temps. It was murder on spark plug wires too.
 
ok guys well i replaced the coil checked the ignition module and it passed and i installed a 1.79ohm ballast resistor in the pos wire for the coil.

and it didnt fix a damn thing the coil got really hott the wires to the distributor got really hott the ballast resitor was smoking... i am so close this is killing me.

I dont know if its related but when i tryed to drive it the motor started missing when i put it under a load but if i eased it uip to speed it was fine,

and after it gets all warmed up it wont idle in gear. i take it from park to either gear and once it locks in and loads the mottor it dies. i thought that might be torque converter but it idles in gear just fine when its cold. so this is kinda urgent i need my truck driving asap so please throw me any and all ideas. I wired it exactly like the duraspark 2 diagram in the tech lib except i had no harnesses so i made mine and used the 1.79ohm porc ballast resitor. and i dont have a start bypass but it starts just fine without it. PLEASE HELP!!!
Do you have the engine grounded properly ? That's the only other possibility I can think of.
 
Do you have the engine grounded properly ? That's the only other possibility I can think of.

actually now that i think of it im not sure how grounded the motor is... Ill double check that today. but could you explain what that would effect???
 
I was still thinking more of something is wired incorrect and the alternator is feeding straight into the truck a full 14+ volts. shouldnt it only put that much into the battery or something like that?
 
He didn't say what type of module he was using. I'm using a gm four pin module with a dry type hei coil and it works fine with my duraspark distributor.

I am using a ignition mod out of a 82 ford F150 (its brand new) its the dura spark 2 style
 
this isn't much help but.......seems to me.....in the OLD days, there was a Heavy Duty wire going from the ignition switch to the ballast resistor.....
the H. D. wire would get warm & the ballast would get HOT.....
then there was a medium size wire from the ballast to the coil.....and normally the coil would get very warm, but not hand-yankin hot....

:icon_bounceblue:

Most of the time a resistor wire was used instead of a ballast resistor. The wire was thick. I haven't messed with an Accel Supercoil but I know people that did often burned them up so I never bought one. I bought a Mallory of some type (pictured below) and had it on 5 or 6 different engines--taking it with me and putting the stock stuff back in when I sold it. In this car it was on a 289/351C/460. It was also on a Plymouth Duster and a 300-6 in an F100. I think the black box there is a Hy-Fire 4, which stayed with it. I think it used the ballast resistor shown in addition to the factory resistor wire. On those old Ford the solenoid on the fender gave full voltage on the I terminal during cranking and then let off when the key was released and the coil received a lower voltage. I have never modified an EFI engine but they have great ignition systems and I would put the stock stuff back on it. And definatley add some grounds as was stated. The current could be going back home through your ignition system if you don't have a better route.
6700_1094728135664_1450400993_30271943_4403566_n.jpg


12V is nominal voltage. Sensitive things have their own transistor volatge regulators built into them. You will see 14+ volts when it's running.
 
Most of the time a resistor wire was used instead of a ballast resistor. The wire was thick. I haven't messed with an Accel Supercoil but I know people that did often burned them up so I never bought one. I bought a Mallory of some type (pictured below) and had it on 5 or 6 different engines--taking it with me and putting the stock stuff back in when I sold it. In this car it was on a 289/351C/460. It was also on a Plymouth Duster and a 300-6 in an F100. I think the black box there is a Hy-Fire 4, which stayed with it. I think it used the ballast resistor shown in addition to the factory resistor wire. On those old Ford the solenoid on the fender gave full voltage on the I terminal during cranking and then let off when the key was released and the coil received a lower voltage. I have never modified an EFI engine but they have great ignition systems and I would put the stock stuff back on it. And definatley add some grounds as was stated. The current could be going back home through your ignition system if you don't have a better route.
6700_1094728135664_1450400993_30271943_4403566_n.jpg


12V is nominal voltage. Sensitive things have their own transistor volatge regulators built into them. You will see 14+ volts when it's running.

I would but i dont have any of the stock stuff none of it came with the truck. I understand what your saying about using more power to start the motor like bypassing the ballast resitor for cranking. So on the solenoid there is a terminal that runs at a lower voltage when the motor is running labeled "I" and i should run power from that to the + side of the coil?
 
I also dont have a stock coil. I might have a MSD blaster 2 laying around would that work better then the Accel oil filled coil? (i dont know if the blaster 2 is oil filled or dry)
 
I'd hit up the junkyard and snag a coil. New ones are only like $15 and I'd bet most of the junkyard ones are good. Maybe you could grab the ignition stuff while you're there.
 
I just went checking the primary and secondary resistance of the Accel coil is higher then the resistance on the stock coil or the lower model Accel coils so shouldnt that help reduce the amount of flow into the coil and help reduce the amount of heat? so would i want to stay with this coil? I am getting os frustrated i have until sat to figure this problem out and im freaking out im so close but i cant figure out why this keeps happening. one thing I didnt mention before is when I put in the ballast resistor it still over heated the electrical shit and eventually my spark started to cut out again but it took longer this time. I think the ballast resistor helped but eventually evertything got pretty got like to hott to touch and the motor wouldnt hold a gear at an idle (when dropped in gear it would die) i think that has to do with this whole over heating eletrical thing and also when i try to acclerate to quickly and load the motor it starts to miss like its lacking spark i was hoping these were all related.
 
actually now that i think of it im not sure how grounded the motor is... Ill double check that today. but could you explain what that would effect???

I'm not an electrical engineer by far, but a poorly grounded system (the engine) will cause all sorts of mischief There has to be a somewhat direct path for the current to run back along to the battery for any device to work properly. There should be a large gauge copper cable bolted from the engine back to the negative battery terminal.
 
Most of the time a resistor wire was used instead of a ballast resistor. The wire was thick. I haven't messed with an Accel Supercoil but I know people that did often burned them up so I never bought one. I bought a Mallory of some type (pictured below) and had it on 5 or 6 different engines
6700_1094728135664_1450400993_30271943_4403566_n.jpg


12V is nominal voltage. Sensitive things have their own transistor volatge regulators built into them. You will see 14+ volts when it's running.

That's a Mallory Promaster coil, and it comes in 4 flavors: Breaker point, Electronic/Breaker point, CD ignition, and High RPM CD ignition. I'm running the Electronic/Breaker point coil in my Ranger with a Crane XR-1 electronic unit, also used it previously with a Pertronix II in the same vehicle. Good stuff:icon_thumby: Very reliable
 
I bought that one in 1988, with the box. I don't know how many ways it came in 1988. There wasn't an internet so I didn't do any research--just called, told them what I had and they sent it. It never burned out. It left me with a lifelong impression that Accel was shit--though probably not true. But why would you buy something that your friends were filling up the dumpster with?
 
Last edited:

Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

TRS Events

Member & Vendor Upgrades

For a small yearly donation, you can support this forum and receive a 'Supporting Member' banner, or become a 'Supporting Vendor' and promote your products here. Click the banner to find out how.

Latest posts

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

Ranger Adventure Video

TRS Merchandise

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Sponsors


Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad


Amazon Deals

Sponsored Ad

Back
Top