Coils for ION ... still a bust somewhat

[Scott Linder]

Garfield,

There are two basic designs of ignition coils ( transformers) One is tapped
and the other is isolated. The GM unit ( HEI ) used both diring the years.
The early HEI was tapped ( meaning that the secondary was attached internally
to the primary.
The later units were isolated ( to remove some of the primary inductive kick
) and show 0 continuity from the secondary to either primary.
The compound the discussion even further these coils were also polarity wound
with one version ( clockwise) having a yellow primary wire and the other (
cc) was using a white primary lead.  The yellow unit was for chevrolet with
white being olds , pont etc.
A/C Delco used a good manual on these wiring differences.

Jim Linder
www.lindertech.com



field at pilgrimhouse.com wrote:

> On Fri, 29 May 1998 17:47:33 -0400, Clare Snyder <snyder at huron.net>
> wrote:
>
> >There are several different HEI coils. 1988 Caprice, GrandPrix and Monte
> >4.3 uses separated windings in the coil. So does the 87 4.3.
>
> I feel like a good howling session at the moon is in order. HOW are you
> determining that these coils above do indeed HAVE separate windings? Are
> you just going by the NUMBER of terminals, or are you looking at a
> schematic that depicts the internal winding connections inside the coil?
>
> Cuz I have now been twice to the GM dealer, and metered these bloody
> coils TWICE now and they do NOT have separate windings. Between any pair
> of connections, there is at most 10Kohms, meaning the primary and
> secondaries are tied together. You CAN'T just go by counting the number
> of terminals on the coil. That apparently means nuthing. Some are either
> just an extra terminal for a tach connection, or actually diode
> protected terminal for tach output. I looked at a Toyota coil today I
> thot might do the job. It had 3 terminals besides the HV tower. But ALL
> 3 of those terminals and the HV post were all connected together
> internally in some way! QED, the number of terminals means nuthin about
> whether the primary and secondary are connected or not.
>
> NOW, if your manual shows that these coils, by schematically drawing the
> internals of the coil, have separate windings, I gotta see a copy of
> that drawing!!! PLEASE.
>
> But one thang is sure. I ain't gonna meter that coil, not even ONE more
> time. Grumble. Whimper. Those HV diodes are lookin better by the second.
>
> Anyone so far been able to come up with a twin-output (i.e. wasteFire)
> coil that has decent primary connectors, instead of just spade terminal
> slots in it's underbelly?
>
> Gar