If they did I'm sure it wasn't on purpose.

(Page 3 of the thread already. LOL)

 

Try switching from DC to AC on the meter (or vice-versa) and see if the reading stabilizes.

 

you started page three not me

weird when i switched to a/c. when hooked up polarity correct it reads flashing 70+v overload, repeat over and over, when i reverse wires in a/c it reads 13.5-14.7

back to d/c same as before. one thing i did notice as it gets darker when i touch the lead to the coil i see a faint spark each time i touch it.

you laugh about screaming about a bad coil, i had to go run the mom on some errands. to the bank, computer went down, she wanted to stop at burger king, no chicken cooked waited in the "special" drive thru parking space, drove 25 miles to pick up a float for a chinese 4 wheeler got home the float has a crack in it.

 

I hate them days.

 

When you test any other electrical circuits does the volt meter work fine on the DC 20volt setting? If so then I would have the parts store replace the coil for it seems to be sending some of the high voltage current backwards. And if so then that ac voltage will wreck havoc with the alternator and the SBEC. Run it too long and it can fry both of them.

 

When you test any other electrical circuits does the volt meter work fine on the DC 20volt setting?


yeah the battery tests, as i stated before it shows around 13.4v from pos coil to engine block ground etc.

off to the parts store in the a.m. i did check resistance term to term its at 5.67 ohms and 10.7k from term to dist out so this one seems worse than the one i just took off???

praying for monster blue lightening from these durn plugs after this!

 

Ok I made a mistake. I just looked up the wiring diagram for your SBEC. The wild voltage reading you are getting with the volt meter is correct in that it will fluctuate around as the engine is running. The negative wire that comes from the coil pack goes to the SBEC and it cycles the coil pack. So as the engine runs the SBEC is turning on and off the coil pack 8 times per revolution of the cam shaft. So the digital meter sees this as a AC circuit instead of DC.

If you have a analog (needle and gage) type volt meter use it to check the coils voltage. The digital one will be confused by the pulses from the SBEC. Wal-Mart has the analog meters for about $10.00. In this case the analog will show a more stead reading of the coils voltage.

 

Technically the meter is trying to read pulsed DC. For it to be AC the polarity would actually have to keep reversing. I suggested trying the AC scale only because when on AC, the meter expect a non-steady waveform and by design will be more stable than on the DC scale.

I missed the fact that a digital meter was being used. It is correct the digital meters are not very good at reading across the coil. An analog meter is a much better choice.

 

i had other things to deal with this morning, but i gather i am waiting to return the coil because i need to test the engine differently. i will go get a analog meter, i acutally might have one in storage. i am guessing here the theory is the needle will not bounce back to zero so fast as to "float" the needle around the max voltage? i have a super stupid question but what would one think the best plug gap for a 1989 dodge 318 with 200k miles be? i am wondering if i gapped the plugs to big for an older engine or something stupid?

 

Correct about the needle and .035 on the plugs.