How to check a coil and other info

[jeff0547]

For about 9 months, I have been starting my 52 Suburban about once per week. I run an electric fuel pump from a gas can in front of the radiator. I usually let the fuel pump run for about 10 seconds (to fill the bowl) and then I crank it over.

Well, I went out of town for a week, came back and got sick for about 3 weeks (Pneumonia). After I recovered, I went out to start it. Guess what. It won't start. Its getting fuel and air but seems to get no fire. I haven't checked, yet to see if it really isn't getting fire, so I'll do that first.

I have a #00 ground cable and a strong battery, so I suspect it's the coil. Is there a way to check the coil at home or should I take it to Auto Zone and let them check it?

BTW: my hot lead from the fuel pump is connected to the positive (+) side of the coil and had been working fine. I'm kinda stumped...

[garbagestate 44]

I had a similar problem a while back and what I came up with was an ohmeter test. You touch the test probes to the primary winding which are the + and – taps on either side of the coil. On a healthy unit you should get a reading of around 1.2 ohms. To test the secondary winding you attach the probe to the – side of the primary and the center tap where the high tension wire goes and it should read between 8000 and 11000 ohms. If either of these readings display “OL” then the coil probably has an open winding and is shot. I can't find the post but I think Don Coatney devised a bench test that involved spinning the coil/ distributor combo up with a power drill to make it spark.Hope this helps

[JIPJOBXX]

Do you have any friends that have a six volt car? If so you might just try there coil out in your rig. I bought a new coil at Auto Zone and it was only 19 dollars-that's fairly reasonable.

[JIPJOBXX]

Did you try shorting out the coil wire to the distributor?