Coil Failure

AFAIK, any could that meets the Magnaspark specs would do, but I’m reasonably certain if anything went wrong they wouldn’t warranty the magnaspark unit if you didn’t use their coil.

Any idea what happened? I’ve heard electronic ignitions are easy to burn up if the spark plug leads are ungrounded.

MagnaSpark II seems to be having some problems. I'm on my third ignition module in a couple of months. And no, the first two were not installed incorrectly. I'm installing the third one this weekend.

@dlearl476 no idea why it failed. I was just driving and the car stopped running. Did a bunch of trouble shooting and it was trying to turn over but wasn’t so I figured (hoped) it was either a fuel line, distributor, spark issue.

I just swapped it out with a Bosch Blue instead of the MagnaSpark and it seems to be running fine now.

2 speedies, only electrical snafu was the wire from dizzy to coil would fall off from vibration i guess,,,stopped dead in its tracks

Yeah mine stopped at a car show. Perfect. Just a small local group of guys. More of a meet and greet. I did the diagnostics and determined it was the module. Although they were backordered, Marieannne at CB Performance sent one out to me at no cost. She and CB are first cabin when it comes to customer service.

Installed and it lasted less than a day. Ordered two more and I will try the next one. If I had installed it wrong, it would have fried and never started.

We will see!

Good luck sir @Panhandle Bob I’m 99.9% sure we got it wired/fit correctly!  Ha.

it seemed to start stronger and idled well (right at 1k) so fingers crossed

.

FWIW, I just kept using my old Bosch coil when I switched from an imitation 009 to a MagnaSpark II. All has been fine ever since.

The folks at CBP told me you bet, fer sure, you can use a Bosch coil. They just don't make as much profit out of the transaction in that case.

My take has always been that a Volkswagen engine shouldn't need a space-age ignition system to, like, run OK because, well, Volkswagen. And I'm also wondering just how space-age a CB ignition coil could be inside, anyway. I mean, would the electrons really notice a difference?

Coils in general are happier the farther they are from heat and vibration. Mine is mounted in the left, rear corner of the engine bay and not on the shroud. It doesn't look as nifty mounted there as it would on the shroud, but I figure I'm not a stylish guy otherwise, and having my coil on the shroud probably wouldn't help me get invited to the right parties, anyway.

Just saying.

@Sacto Mitch posted:

I'm not a stylish guy otherwise, and having my coil on the shroud probably wouldn't help me get invited to the right parties, anyway.

Just saying.

She grew up with the children of the stars
In the Hollywood hills and the boulevard
Her parents threw big parties, everyone was there
They hung out with folks like
Dennis Hopper and Bob Seeger and Sonny and Cher

... and so on, etc...

I told her I ain't so sure about this place
It's hard to play a gig in this town and keep a straight face
Seems like everybody's got a plan
It's kind of like Nashville with a tan

I don't think you're missing much, Mitch.

Hey, @Panhandle Bob!

I'm wondering if your coil is the culprit, because you've gone through 3 modules and still on the same coil?  It may have too low resistance in the primary (12 volt) side, thereby making your electronic module work harder and/or croaking.

I hate to make you buy more stuff just to experiment, but we know from @Chappy that you can run a Bosch Blue Coil on it with success and maybe you have the old one still kicking around the Garaje con su Speedster.....

Food for thought....

Certainly could be. I'll check that first. I have about 3 good coils and a couple of 009's sitting around as well. one way or the other, I'll get to the bottom of it. Thanks for thinking of me!

Define low resistance reading on a multimeter, please.

@Panhandle Bob posted:

Define low resistance reading on a multimeter, please.

Depends on what you have. Iirc, resistance of “Bosch Blue” coil is 3-4K on the primary side and 11-13 on the secondary.
My F.A.S.T Ignition specified high or low resistance coils. The Pertronix’ site lists 3: 0.32, 1.5, and 3.0.
It all depends on what your ignition system is made for.

btw: if you’re not familiar, you measure the primary resistance across the two leads +/- or 30/15) and secondary across the + terminal and hot lead.

FWIW: when I chased my tail wrt “carb issues” a couple of years ago, my coil tested fine with a digital multimeter but when I finally broke out my Simpson 260 the secondary was reading 17K ohms. Replaced it and my “carb issues” went away.

@Panhandle Bob posted:

Define low resistance reading on a multimeter, please.

To answer your question, Bob - the original PerTronix modules wanted to see at least 3 ohms on the primary circuit of the coil (between the two terminals). Less, and the module will burn up. "Hotter" coils from various places have less resistance and will burn them up. Allegedly, you can run anything you want with a PerTronix II, but I don't trust them. I ran a hot coil with a Comp-u-Fire module by using a ballast resistor from my FLAPS (tell 'em it's for a 196X Chevy truck if they ask).

I've got no idea what a CB MagnaSpark points replacement module wants (of if it cares), but it's possible that the latest batch of their very own east Asian sourced coils might not play nicely with their latest batch of east Asian sourced points replacement modules.

This entire thing could probably be avoided by using the MagnaSpark module as a trigger for a CDI box, which are generally fine with whatever stupid-hot coil (or not) you want to throw at it.

It's just a shame nobody makes an ignition worth having at this point. Mallory Uni-Lite used to be the gold standard, and their pickups are dead-nuts reliable, but their advance curves went all to heck about 15 years back. The CB curve is apparently really nice, but they keep failing at a rate that worries me.

I just looked it up. Primary resistance on the coil supplied in the MagnaSpark kit is 1.1 ohms. Try running your blue coil, Bob - or getting a $10 ballast resistor.

I'd tell you to get a CDI box, but I don't know if you're ready for that kind of awesome.

I concur with most carb problems are ignition related. I installed an MSD box and distributor and my well worn Dellorto book is now sleeping on the shelf.

Thanks gents. I think I'll try the blue coil that was removed in favor of the MagnaSpark II coil along with a new ignition module. Just can't stop having fun.

my bus stopped dead in it's tracks once due to the points fried....which i found out after buying a new bosch coil...no luck...after a waste of a weekend round trip back home for a trailer...bought a new set of points and VROOM....i also had the loose wire from the coil problem....was smart enough to remedy that....like rosann rosanna dana said "ya know jane, it's always SUMTHIN"...if it's not one thing it's another"....all reasons i FINALLY  escaped the AIRCOOLED world for SUBARU power....haa!...sorry for that...just IMHO

@jncspyder posted:

my bus stopped dead in it's tracks once due to the points fried....which i found out after buying a new bosch coil...no luck...after a waste of a weekend round trip back home for a trailer...bought a new set of points and VROOM....i also had the loose wire from the coil problem....was smart enough to remedy that....like rosann rosanna dana said "ya know jane, it's always SUMTHIN"...if it's not one thing it's another"....all reasons i FINALLY  escaped the AIRCOOLED world for SUBARU power....haa!...sorry for that...just IMHO

And this good sir, is why I decided to put a Suby engine in my current 356 build. One air cooled in the garage is enough to keep me busy it seems.

And it looks like I may be swapping out this Blue coil after all as I’m now getting the old snap crackle pop while shifting in 1st & 2nd. Like Stan mentioned I keep thinking it’s carb related but they are totally dialed in. Sigh.

@Stan Galat posted:

I just looked it up. Primary resistance on the coil supplied in the MagnaSpark kit is 1.1 ohms. Try running your blue coil, Bob - or getting a $10 ballast resistor.

I'd tell you to get a CDI box, but I don't know if you're ready for that kind of awesome.

1.1 ohms? That is too little, that coil will be drawing over 12 amps through that little electronic point eliminator. THAT is the problem for sure that is burning out these modules.

I do believe if higher spec components were used, 15-20 amps through the Magana Spark would be no problem. But hey, lowest cost/highest profit rules.

A different(higher resistance) coil or the addition of a ballast resistor in series with the coil should permanently solve this problem.

Yeah, CDI box would fix it, it has it's own power source and would run all that current through the CDI box rather than the tiny little point eliminator circuit.

@DannyP posted:

1.1 ohms? That is too little, that coil will be drawing over 12 amps through that little electronic point eliminator. THAT is the problem for sure that is burning out these modules.

I do believe if higher spec components were used, 15-20 amps through the Magana Spark would be no problem. But hey, lowest cost/highest profit rules.

A different(higher resistance) coil or the addition of a ballast resistor in series with the coil should permanently solve this problem.

Yeah, CDI box would fix it, it has it's own power source and would run all that current through the CDI box rather than the tiny little point eliminator circuit.

Yep. Once I saw the spec, everything came into focus.