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1971 Ford Pickup Reg Cab Base

1971 Ford Pickup Reg Cab
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September 11, 2012, 11:36 am

Glen S
 

Question: coil stops working

coil works for a while then stops working . switch positive wire and negative wire coil works again . have put on new coil ,does the same thing . could this be my voltage regular.


September 19, 2012, 5:47 pm

Elizabeth K
Expert Mechanic

Probably not the voltage regulator. Neg wire should go to ground, pos wire should go to the distributor. You may have a bad connection at either of those ends that you are disturbing, so clean up those connections.

If it starts and dies, then won't start again until you switch the coil polarity, test the output of the primary ignition circuit when it won't restart: using a 12v test light probe, clip the clamp to the POS side of the battery, and the pointy tip to the neg side of the coil. Have someone crank the key. If the ignition module and primary circuit wiring is good, the test lamp should blink with each rpm. If it doesn't blink the ignition module or primary ignition circuit is the problem.


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