Manky Monkey Motors

Hi Guys
   Can anyone tell me.... if I connected a 12v coil up to live feed and fitted the HT lead from it (WITH NO OTHER WIRES) would it spark when grounded with ignition on and engine not running???
Im trying to work out how to check a coil is working independently from the rest of the ignition system aaagghhhhhhhhh :-\

its a bit more tricky than that pete mate i looked when i had the problem, google "how to test an ignition coil"  i cant remember now what it said ???

No it wont Pete.

Leave the 12v supply to the positive side, disconnect the electronic pick up wire and connect a fly lead to the negative side.
Connect the king lead to the center and fix it close to the block (or other metal casing).
Turn the ignition (power) on.
Take the other end of the fly lead and touch it to earth, the coil should fire.

Thanks Luke & Tim
 I'll check those suggestions out later :)
Cheers
 8)

Who needs me when you got google  ;D

You're good for a giggle anyway.

Luke, tried that but no joy. Set meter at 20M and got reading of 0.00, reset meter at 20K and got 0.00 again. I dont know 100% if meter correct though ???

Tim, disconnected coil from both + & - of electronic pick up,  connected live feed from ignition switch to + of coil & fly lead to - of coil. earthed fly lead to - of battery, switched ignition on and NO spark at HT lead when close to block/-. although there was a spark when fly lead went to - of battery. Look like coil knackered, but its only ever been run for 2 minutes!!!!
Is there a way to check if the electronic pickup is working?

Further to finding more information through links from good people on here I have retested the coil with my meter.

Setting the meter to 20K, in the OHMS range, (first of all touching the probes together to settle the reading) I now find the reading between the centre HT outlet and the + side of coil is "15.56".

Resetting the meter to 200K, (then touching probes together again etc) I find the reading between both the + & - of the coil is "0.00"

But I dont understand what the readings mean :D :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJYJ3KvPhhY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Your coil should be a straight 12v coil which has a reading of 3 ; tested as per

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKWsI2vNxPs&feature=relmfu
.
.

Nor me!

Pete, what your doing is measuring resistance in the coils of wire contained within the coil body.
As Fifer says, the DLB105 is a 3 ohm primary resistance coil.

With all the wires disconnected from the terminals on the coil, switch your meter to the lowest OHM setting that it has then touch one prong of the meter test lead to one small terminal on the coil and the other prong to the other terminal, doesn`t matter what colour goes to which.
You should get a reading of between 2.7 - 3.2 ohms. anything outside this range will indicate a `bad` coil, but it may still work.
The primary winding circuit is the one that actualy creates high voltage from a smaller input voltage and is made up of thick copper wire, this  winding very rarely fails.

The secondary winding is made up from thousands of turns of very fine (human hair width) copper wire, its the secondary winding that delivers the spark out of the coil and down the king lead to the dizzy cap.
I cannot find a given value for the secondary resistance, but somewher between 0.10 and 0.80 should be ok, what is more important is whether or not you get a reading.
So switch the meter to the next highest ohms range and then,  one prong of your meter to the + side terminal and one to the king lead terminal, if you have a reading, you have a path for the `spark` to travel up.

In a points distributor the points open and break the electical circuit before the current reaches the secondary winding. Because there is a gap in the circuit, the current jumps the gap in the form of a spark and with the help of the condenser, the current falls drasticaly falls again.

Back to the test you did earlier, the sparking that you got when you touched the - side lead to earth is basically what happens with traditionaly points. When the points are closed, the negative circuit is completed and the spark has only one path to travel, up and out the coil.
When the points are open, the earth circuit is broken and the spark jumps the gap on the points.

I think i have a coil in the shed somewhere if you need pics of the testing process.

Thanks for the info gents, I'll get out to workshop again and have another go soon  :)

Just had email from supplier of the coil and they say its 2.4 ohms  ???