Bad Coil?

[Doc Sprocket]

Hey, y'all! Been toying with an old 6hp Tecumseh for laffs- Yeah, I know I'm sick. It was given to me in a non-running state. Last time I played with it, I got a few pops when I poured a little fuel down her throat. Put it away for awhile. Now I've got no spark, not a hint. I haven't laid hands on a manual yet, but I did try this- I did a resistance measurement between the spark plug lead and coil ground and got a value way up in the 1800 Megohm range. This doesn't seem right to me. So I trotted over to my sled, did the same test on one of it's coils, and got a reading in the 8 Kilohm range. Although I don't have a spec to compare to, this would seem to suggest to me the coil's bad.
Did I test correctly, Is this coil shot? Go easy on me, this is one engine aspect I'm not well versed in. Thanks for your help!
Cheers- Chris

 

[Russ2251]

...Yeah, I know I'm sick.

Why?
Didn't state if it is gapless ignition.
Reinstall coil and rock flywheel back and forth whilst holding plug wire.
If if doesn't knock you on your butt, then coil is indeed bad or something else associated with it is. Points, condenser, bad ground, improperly gapped, etc.

 

[anderkart]

Hey Chris, If its any help I just mesured between my Tecumseh Star plug lead and ground on the cylinder head and got a consistent 14.55 kΩ reading. (my engine runs)

 

[Doc Sprocket]

The sick comment is a pre-emptive strike against the "Throw it out and go buy a clone" comments I'm sure to recieve. This was originally a points engine, was converted to solid state with a Nove-type chip. I don't know the chip's manufacturer or if it's and good, no idea how to test it. I cannot reinstall the points and condenser as I do not have them. That's why I thought I'd start with the coil. Plug is clean and correctly gapped to .030

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Anderkart- thanks for the quick check. I don't expect the values to be the same, but if youre around 14K, there's no way I oughta be up near 2000M

 

[Russ2251]

The sick comment is a pre-emptive strike against the "Throw it out and go buy a clone"

I hear ya.
Nothing wrong with Tecumseh.
Got a bad rap from the Briggs guys (I believe) because they are (somewhat) temperamental by comparison.
If they are set up to factory spec, they are never a problem.
Also, if fuel is left in the system during storage they will most assuredly be a problem.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

I just found some info that suggested that 7.5 to 14K is acceptable for an AUTOMOTIVE coil. I'm willing to assume that this coil is similarly constructed, and therefore, junk.
Anderkart, how did you generate the OHM symbol in your post?

 

[anderkart]

I googled the ohm term and then just coped and pasted it. (that kinda made it look like I actualy knew what I was doing huh)

I used to hang out on an electronics forum and some dude there claimed to have figured out some way to assign the ohm symbol to one of his key's, but I forget how he said he'd pulled it off.

ps: sounds like your faulty coil diagnosis is corect.

 

[1992suburban]

theres alt or ctrl and numbers hold them down like alt 184 something makes symbols dont it?>?

 

[anderkart]

Yeah I cant remember for sure but I think he'd said something like that.

 

[1992suburban]

Hold down the ALT key and type 0937 on the keypad

 

[anderkart]

Yeah I just googled it: here's a link to instructions for all kinds of diferent symbols you can assign to a pc: http://keyboardsymbols.blogspot.com/2008/10/code.html

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Put the points on it, you don't get any simpler than a Tecumseh mag.

 

[Russ2251]

you don't get any simpler than a Tecumseh mag.

...and will outlast you and probably your kids.
Points also produce a longer duration spark.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Okay... Looks like I'll be shopping for a complete electrical package for this thang... Coil, points, condenser, etc. Thanks for your help, folks!

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

...and will outlast you and probably your kids.
Points also produce a longer duration spark.

We have a tiller that was running like **** a while back, iron block 5hp tec, has to be 40-50 years old. Put a new mag in it and it ran great(though it probably just needed points and condenser).

My dad has 2 iron block tecs that have have 0-10 minutes on em. One is a 5hp short block build that has NEVER been run, it has a minibike kicker with it, guts are beautiful, no internal corrosion. Another we found in my Gradfathers basement, a 6hp I believe(1" PTO), probably another shortblock, this one was kind of rusty with a couple small spots on the deck and ports, it cranked smooth so we cleaned the points and rigged up a carb, ran it on a bottle for a few minutes.