SECONDARY IGNITION

n the May edition of this series, we discussed spark plug and ignition wire maintenance. This time, well look at the other important parts of the secondary ignition supply chain: the coil, distributor cap and rotor. As distributor caps and rotors are rapidly disappearing from the underhood landscape, well start with them first. Ignition points (another ignition component that has already disappeared) served a very important purpose, besides the obvious one of switching the current to the ignition coil off and on. Because the points were located inside the distributor, under the distributor cap and rotor, it was necessary to remove the cap (and sometimes the rotor) to gain access to the points when they required replacement or adjustment. Removing the cap for this maintenance chore provided a perfect opportunity to inspect the cap and rotor for wear. If the cap or rotor looked funky, it was a simple matter to recommend replacement to the customer. For many years, cap and rotor inspection and replacement were considered a part of what was once called a tuneup. Nearly all vehicles in regular service today are equipped with electronic ignition, which means no more points. Unlike the points and condenser, the electronic ignition components inside the distributor normally require no inspection, adjustment or replacement, unless they should happen to fail unexpectedly. This means that many months or even years may pass before the inside of the distributor cap and the rotor receive a visual inspection. The cap and rotor are wear items, which means they do not have an unlimited life span. As the coil feeds current to the spark plugs on distributor ignition vehicles, it must pass through the rotor and cap before it reaches the plug wires. The current arcs as it makes the jump across the rotor gap, which gradually erodes the metal rotor tip and cap

electrodes. As more wear accumulates, the gap grows larger and the coil must produce more voltage to compensate. When demand exceeds supply, engine misses and loss of performance may result, which is why the cap and rotor should be inspected (and replaced, if necessary) according to the manufacturers PM recommendations. Perhaps you remember the 70s, when auto manufacturers first touted the high-energy ignition systems on their vehicles. Coils in these systems were capable of producing approximately 40kV or moreabout twice what the old points ignition systems could put out. This higher voltage capability is now standard on all vehicles. Most of the time, the coil needs to produce only between 10 and 20kVnot much different than in the old days. This is because the actual coil output is always just whats needed to fire the spark plug gaps, no more and no less. So why is the extra reserve needed? Under normal conditions, the engine will ask the coil for higher-than-normal kV output during heavy acceleration or heavy loading. The engine will also require higher kV if the fuel mixture is either too rich or too lean. A complete lack of fuel really forces the coil to pump out extra-high kV, as it attempts to ignite fuel that isnt there. The extra stress of cranking the engine at cold

temperatures when theres no fuel in the cylinder may send an otherwise perfectly good coil to an early grave. A worn-out distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs or plug wires also force the coil to put out higher kV, to compensate for the losses as the spark tries to make its way to the end of the line. Plugs, plug wires, caps and rotors increase in resistance as they age. If these parts are not replaced when they become worn, the increased resistance cuts spark duration and spark energy delivered to the mixture. In addition to reducing engine performance, the coils useful life may also be cut short by worn ignition parts. Coil life span is directly related to the amount of time it spends producing high voltage (. kV). 20 Many late-model vehicles have dispensed with distributor ignition systems and are equipped with coil-on-plug ignition systems, similar to the one in the photo on this page. While these systems have cut down on the number of moving parts and wear items have been reduced, problems can still occur. When installing replacement boots on coil packs, dont forget to use boot grease. The grease improves the seal between the boot and the tower on the ignition coil, which keeps the coils high voltage headed in the right direction (to the spark plug). Dried out or cracked boots must be replaced, as they can no longer hold this seal. Once an arc has gone through a boot or spark plug wire, a burn path is created. After that, arcing is most likely to reoccur when maximum coil kV is required (during high load or acceleration). A snap acceleration test in a dark room often will reveal intermittent faults. Internal failure had caused the coil pack in the photograph to burn through completely, producing anything but an intermittent problem!
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BY KARL SEYFERT
70 August 2003