Hot coil..

[mrzigazaga]

Hi peeps.. Feel dumber than dumber, Monday went to start 280 and nothing, Got the hump, looked at the cable tied relay box and cut the ties off... Low and behold 3 loose relays.. Pushed em in and guess what.. She starts.. took it to auto elec he couldnt find anything but replaced some spooky wires, Now the car runs ok untill it gets hot then it wants to die when you accelerate.. I felt the coil and it was so hot i couldnt touch it,,, Im wondering if the intermotor part is the wrong type and should purchase an original ford part thats listed.. Also there is no spring or speed limiter on my rotor arm.. Is that right?.. Motorcraft dizzy.. I might change it later for a bosch.. Can anyone help also to tell me where i can find a air intake pipe(rectangle end) for the air box feed.. Ta, Any thoughts please.. Many thanks.Zig

Edited by mrzigazaga on Wednesday 11th August 16:30

[ed_crouch]

Right. Incorrect coil would be a suspect.

Check part numbers and then check primary resistance between the two low voltage posts.

I suspect you have the wrong coil.

[mrzigazaga]

Cheers Ed.. I have found a ford site that supplies one the same as the orig.. Im gonna try the old one as i havent done this since the electrical prob was solved.. (loose relays).. The coil was so hot i was gonna wrap some bacon round it earlier.. Could always turn it into a mobile cafe..

[benebob]

Other thing to check is to see if there is a ballast resistor on the coil to which limits the amount which goes to the coil in running mode. In start up it should be getting 13.2 or so volts, when running 11 volts or in that neighborhood. If your getting 14 volts or so with the alt running you'll be getting too much. Most any coil should work. I got a 9.99 special for testing mine a while back. It is still in the car.

[mrzigazaga]

Cheers benebob, There is a blue wire instead of a resistor, Does this make a diff?.. Cheers

[chunder]

Don't quote me on this, it should be in the bible anyway, but I believe the V6 has a ballast resistor that is shorted out when cranking to provide battery voltage at the coil, then reduced to 9v or so once running. The coil needs to be of a type suitable for use with a ballast resistor.

Sounds like the bible would be a good buy to keep with the car !

[benebob]

mrzigazaga said:

Cheers benebob, There is a blue wire instead of a resistor, Does this make a diff?.. Cheers

As chudder says it might be 9v but we can both agree it is lower I'm sure. Will it make a difference? That's a loaded question. A coil will run okay higher w/o a problem but the life of the coil will be shorter as you're basically cooking it. A resister should cost you $5, a cheap coil $10. Easy and cheap test. As far as it goes I'm running mine w/o the resistor but I'm also running an MSD ignition not a stock duraspark set up.

[Wedg1e]

mrzigazaga said:

Cheers benebob, There is a blue wire instead of a resistor, Does this make a diff?.. Cheers

From memory, on my 280 the resistor was about 4 feet of thickish blue wire, coiled up.

[mrzigazaga]

That the one wedg1e.. I did put the old coil back in and it wasnt gettin that hot.. The auto electrican cut out a blue 4 pin relay that made the ignition light stay on.. It was a stand alone and not part of the relay or fuse box.. Should he of done this? Cant find it in the capri manual.. Now i have a severe fuel leak.. Its undrivable, Ive had to join RAC and they are coming out tom to have a look. Im not getting inviolved in fuel as ive had a couple of nasty experiences with fuel.. It feels like ill never know whats wrong as one thing after another seems to be the case, What happens if after the fuel leak is fixed that it still runs like ST.. Lets hope not..

[jeff m]

You have all the correct info contained in the previous posts.
My guess is that somebody has bypassed the ballast resister giving you 12 with key in the run position.
Option 1. Put in a coil that is expecting 12v, you will lose the extra spark power on start but at least you will not "cook it" after 10 minutes.
(you will have to check for 12v at both key positions)

Option 2. Get it back to original ballast and original coil or the blue one.

Option 1. Might be better.......

Where's the fuel leak ?

Edited by jeff m on Thursday 12th August 19:43

[mrzigazaga]

Cheers jeff.. Ive got a funny feeling that the guy who cut the relay out might of cut out something to do with the fuel pump.. It interupted the feed to the ignition and was making the ign light stay on.. Blue 4 pin. Just under the passenger side.. in front of relay and fuse box.