Coil voltage
Printed From: CorrectCraftFan.com
Category: Repairs and Maintenance
Forum Name: Boat Maintenance
Forum Discription: Discuss maintenance of your Correct Craft
URL: http://www.CorrectCraftFan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39540
Printed Date: November-16-2024 at 2:30pm
Topic: Coil voltage
Posted By: 79skn
Subject: Coil voltage
Date Posted: July-31-2016 at 8:27pm
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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. |
Replies:
Posted By: 8122pbrainard
Date Posted: July-31-2016 at 8:39pm
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79, I seem to remember the primary on the coil draws around 4 amps. Keep in mind that the electric choke is drawing current too. What's going on or what are you trying to determine? A delayed welcome to CCfan. Now that you're posting, we can ask for the usual! Pictures!!  ------------- /diaries/details.asp?ID=1622" rel="nofollow - 54 Atom /diaries/details.asp?ID=2179" rel="nofollow - 77 Tique 64 X55 Dunphy Keep it original, Pete < |
Posted By: 79skn
Date Posted: August-01-2016 at 3:56pm
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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. |
Posted By: 8122pbrainard
Date Posted: August-02-2016 at 1:00am
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79, Is the voltage drop through the ignition switch? Is it getting hot besides the wire? Ohm out the switch. It should be a near zero. If not, it's bad and burning up the volts. ------------- /diaries/details.asp?ID=1622" rel="nofollow - 54 Atom /diaries/details.asp?ID=2179" rel="nofollow - 77 Tique 64 X55 Dunphy Keep it original, Pete < |
Posted By: 79skn
Date Posted: August-02-2016 at 12:44pm
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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. |
Posted By: 8122pbrainard
Date Posted: August-02-2016 at 1:24pm
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79, The wire should handle the amps without a problem but do go over all connections and especially all crimp on connectors. I have found many bad connections that heat up and that heat travels quite a distance up the wire. The worst connections of that era are the .250 quick spade connections. They are a bronze alloy that looses is temper causing some pretty big resistance. I have even found the female portion to break. If you really want to go after the resistance, Ohm out the complete path from start to the load. Work each connection and I will say you can really clean it up. New crimp on's and cutting back the wire to fresh will be needed. ------------- /diaries/details.asp?ID=1622" rel="nofollow - 54 Atom /diaries/details.asp?ID=2179" rel="nofollow - 77 Tique 64 X55 Dunphy Keep it original, Pete < |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: August-02-2016 at 1:29pm
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What brand & model of electronic ignition do you have ? |
Posted By: 79skn
Date Posted: August-02-2016 at 8:37pm
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it's the Pertronix. Converted it about 15-16 years ago. The first 2 kits had issues as soon as they were put in. Part of a bad batch that was put out about that time. The 3rd kit has been running strong since. I have ohm'd out a lot of the connections but not all of them. Most of the spade connectors have been cleaned up with a bit of sandpaper or a fine nail file and have been re-crimped to tighten but that really didn't change anything. My suspicion is that stripping the wire back and putting on new connectors would help. |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: August-02-2016 at 11:50pm
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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. |
Posted By: fanofccfan
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 12:54am
| ^ 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! |
Posted By: 8122pbrainard
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 6:59am
https://youtu.be/NK9HXu9g5qA" rel="nofollow - the big one But,
------------- /diaries/details.asp?ID=1622" rel="nofollow - 54 Atom /diaries/details.asp?ID=2179" rel="nofollow - 77 Tique 64 X55 Dunphy Keep it original, Pete < |
KENO wrote:Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 8:18am
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Good comeback Pete. I'm still laughing pretty hard. They don't make TV shows like they used to either |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 8:37am
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. |
Posted By: fanofccfan
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 8:53am
Fair enough. Like I said in my other post. I do understand the why/desire people want to use them. It's too bad some seem to be more reliable than others. |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 9:30am
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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 |
Posted By: 79skn
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 1:17pm
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for as old as the conversion is you are probably right that it was the Hot Spark version. People will disagree but the reason for the swap originally was trying to find points when I needed to do tuneups. Finally got tired of the hassle and switched to electronic ignition. Other than having the first 2 not work properly, it has been solid as a rock since. I come squarely down on the fence between keeping it original and not. I'm in IT and know that if we were still working on computers from the 70's then the world would not be making technological advancements. For me the same is true for boat parts. If a part needs to be replaced and there is something newer that is better then that's probably where I'll go if the aesthetics are right. Otherwise original parts will work if they can be found. It's getting harder on these older boats. I would post a few pics but haven't been able to get it to work properly. As you might suspect this boat and I have been around long enough that most of the pictures I have of it are not digital and I have not taken many digital ones. Had the boat long enough I know what it looks like and haven't transferred old pics to digital format. |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 3:52pm
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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 |
Posted By: fanofccfan
Date Posted: August-03-2016 at 5:07pm
I will look at the name of it. The coil said mercruiser on it and I assume they were sold together. It was an easy switch back thankfully. 
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Posted By: 79skn
Date Posted: August-07-2016 at 11:10pm
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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. |
Posted By: 8122pbrainard
Date Posted: August-08-2016 at 8:28am
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79, Keep up the good work with Ohming. What reading did you get across the ignition switch contacts? Considering the voltage drop, I'd say you are correct that there's some resistance there too. ------------- /diaries/details.asp?ID=1622" rel="nofollow - 54 Atom /diaries/details.asp?ID=2179" rel="nofollow - 77 Tique 64 X55 Dunphy Keep it original, Pete < |
Posted By: 79skn
Date Posted: August-08-2016 at 4:49pm
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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. |