Coil voltage

Long time member and browser here but first post.   Have a 79 Ski Nautique, 351 Windsor, that I've had since about 1983. Have done almost all my own work on this boat.   It's been converted to electronic ignition and have had no trouble with that. But I do have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer for. Have searched these forums but haven't found anything that addresses this.

What is the normal amount of current the coil should pull when the ignition is in the on position but the engine not running?    The coil is original to the boat.

Trying to diagnose a voltage drop from battery to ignition.   Battery voltage is normal, a new battery, but voltage at the ignition switch drops about 2 volts.   along with that the wiring to the ignition switch gets extremely hot.   One would think that as long as I've had this boat these issues would have surfaced before but it's only been in the last few years that I've noticed this happening.   May have been there all along but I don't think so.   Nothing has changed in the last few years so it may be just wiring that needs to be upgraded.   

I'm looking at doing a stringer job on the boat this winter and may just re-wire everything while I have it stripped down.

The ignition switch is not getting hot, just the wire.   I have ohm'd the switch and it is near zero.   The symptoms really seem to be that there is resistance in the wire itself. this is original wiring which is pretty under-sized, in my opinion.

Boat starts and runs fine and has for the 33 years that I have had it.   It has about 850 original hours on the engine. I first started noticing this when the fuse housing for the blower would get incredibly warm if the blower was on.   Started tracking down all the connections and voltage/amperage and ohms at all the connections and found this at the ignition switch.

The coil was pulling somewhere between 2.5 - 3.5 amps when the ignition switch was on. I have also noticed that the voltage at the voltage meter on the dash is only showing about 11.5 volts with the switch on.   When the boat is running it doesn't really increase much but the alternator is pumping out normal voltage and the battery shows almost 14 volts and normal charge.   I have put a multimeter on the volt meter at the dash a while back and if I remember correctly it showed what the volt meter showed. Seems there is a couple of volts drop off between the batter and the gauge.   

What brand & model of electronic ignition do you have ?

Hi 79

I checked the current draw on a Pertronix ignitor (the original one, not the ignitor 2) and got about 2 1/4 amps thru the coil with the key in RUN but the engine off, and about another amp going to the electric choke

If I bumped it over just a little so the module wasn't grounding the coil, then I had no amps. This would be just like having a set of points and having them open and checking current you'd have none but bump it over to get the points closed and you have a constant steady current flow that would burn up the points.

I think this is why the Ignitor can cook itself if you leave the key in RUN without the engine running for to long of a time period. (steady high current flow through the electronics).

Having access to an Ignitor 2, I did the same check and with the key in RUN and the engine off and then bumping it over,no matter how many times I bumped it over, I got zero current flow.
Pertronix does advertise that the Ignitor 2 has protection for this situation to keep from burning up the module.

It's done with some electronic wizardry in the module

So anyways, it sounds to me like your current draw numbers are right and it's probably connections causing high resistance like Pete suggested.

Speaking of Pete, you may have made him have a small stroke or something by saying you have a Pertronix conversion that's gone 15+ years now.

Yes Pete, those people are lurking out there.

KENO wrote: Hi 79 Speaking of Pete, you may have made him have a small stroke or something by saying you have a Pertronix conversion that's gone 15+ years now. Yes Pete, those people are lurking out there.

the big one   

But,

fanofccfan wrote: ^ few and far between I'd be willing to bet. Just changed one out for the old style points that didn't make fire in between 1200 and 3000

   

fanofccfan wrote: ^ few and far between I'd be willing to bet. Just changed one out for the old style points that didn't make fire in between 1200 and 3000 rpm. She purrs like ski a kitten now!

Meow

To each his own I guess.

This fits right in with all the other "what's better arguments" out there.

Have both myself and don't get into the "what's better arguments"

There have been a number of people on here who haven't looked under the cap until the question was asked about what's under there.and then been surprised by what they found.

Hi Bill (fanofccfan)

It's an easy way to poke a little fun at Pete though, with his passion for points.

I bet the one you had was a "Hot Spark" conversion, they used the original point plate and seem to be a lot like a Pertronix ignitor.

Makes it easier to switch back that way

KenO

Hi 79

My comment about the Hot Spark was for Fanofccfan and what module he probably removed.

I figure you probably have a pertronix since that's what you remember

KenO

If anyone wants to know was able to make progress on the issue this weekend. Took a couple of the wires off and ohm'd them and found quite a bit of resistance. Cut the connectors off the wires and re-ohmed. No resistance. The original wires were not long enough after removing the connectors so I ran new wire with new connectors and that solved a lot of the problems. I'm still seeing too much voltage drop across the switch and then to the dash voltage gauge. may be the switch needs to be replaced or it may be more worn-out connectors.

As 8122pbrainard suggested to check the connectors that was good advice and I appreciate it.

Don't have my notes with me but what I remember was about 2.5 volts.   Which makes the voltage gauge read about 11.2 volts when the battery voltage is 13.7 or so.   

What was interesting to me was even though the connectors didn't look that bad and even after I hit them with some sandpaper to clean them up to re-test them was the amount of resistance.   after they were cut off and the bare wire was tested there was almost no resistance.   Putting on new connectors and re-testing again still showed almost no resistance.

Only a couple of wires were done to ignition and blower switches. Since all the connectors are original the only safe guess is they all need to be replaced on all the wiring.   But I'm concerned that the contacts in the ignition switch have gotten somewhat pitted and corroded over the years.

This boat has almost always been garage kept since I have had it but it also does spend a fair amount of time during the summer weekends parked in the slip behind our houseboat so it's around moisture a lot.