While buzzing along about 70 mph on a trip the first part of this week my '94 B250 5.2L cargo van just died. Being kind of stuck over a 100 miles from the house with no place to work on it, I called AAA and got towed to a local area repair shop (OMG). I expected the worse, a bad fuel pump, becuz the engine had died on me at idle a couple of times the week before, and sometime would seem to "stumble" a little when taking off, or a bad cam position sensor. Since I only use this vehicle a couple of times a week, maybe 20 miles, I figured maybe a good long trip would clear it up. The tech was getting a fair spark from the coil to the distributor, but it was weak at the plugs(He had one of those nifty little lights). After installing new cap, rotor, and plugs to no avail, replacing the ignition coil finally fixed it.

 

Cool. thanks for sharing.

 

The same thing happened to me on my '85 Ram 250 with a 318. I've replaced the coil again recently with only 9 months of occasional use(it's a class B rv). In the past four years I've replaced the ignition coil three times with an accumulated mileage of 62,000 miles.Is the mounting location on top of the engine the reason these things die an early death(heat) or are they from offshore and are of questionable quality?

Woodgrain

 

Probably poor 3rd party stuff. I had a spare I had purchased from AutoZone made by an outfit I had never heard of before, but the mounting holes were too small for the bolts. They ordered one from NAPA that fit, (and I returned mine to AutoZone later), so we'll just have to see what happens. I'm sure it gets pretty hot that way it is mounted.

 

When it comes to chrysler, we put oem sensors on, seems like after market don't seem to last, Have put on napa coils though, and so far they all seem to work, jmo

 

Indeed, those cheap-o after market brands are little savings up front for cost, but they fail all to often.

Summit racing and RockAuto sites are good sources for established named brands that last and perform.