69 Spark Problems

[Tom B.]

Tom,

I believe Chuck is correct, I've had this happen twice, once on a 66 327/350 and once on my 68 L89. I was on a city street when it happened with my 66. TBarr #24014

[Thomas C]

Re: 69 Spark Problems

How obvious would the crack be? I thought I read where the coils are filled with oil, and if you have a crack, you'd see a small to medium oil puddle on the engine. I didn't have any evidence of oil, and with all that ignition shielding, I didn't want to pull everything apart since I had to take it to the paint shop yesterday. Thanks again for the responses.

By the way, what can I expect to pay for another original coil, and how hard are they to come by?

tom

[Tom B.]

Re: 69 Spark Problems

Tom,

Externally it was not obvious in either of my cases. One of my coils did have some seepage around the top edge but it never did look very bad. If you can find a loaner coil that is known to be good you may want to try that route first to make sure you have no other problems. The most recent coil I bought was a Delco replacement for my 68 since I plan to drive. The correct embossed original I kept for show, since it will work under the less than hot circumstances that Chuck mentioned. The embossed original type are more expensive than the now-marked replacements, but they are available. TBarr #24014

[Thomas Christopher]

Re: 69 Spark Problems

Thanks Tom.

tom

[Chuck G.]

Re: 69 Spark Problems

Just a thought...I had a similar problem and it turned out to be a cracked coil. When the engine/coil heated up after driving, the crack would open up and cause a short circuit....no spark. When things cooled down, the crack would close...no short circuit...the car ran till it heated up again. Hope this helps. Chuck

[Thomas C]

69 Spark Problems

I had a problem with my 69 corvette this weekend. For reference it's a 350/350 4sp. I went for a drive, and as I was coming pulling into the driveway, the car just died. No spark getting to the plugs. I checked the coil, and I had a hot going to the positive side, but no ground to the neg. side. I fiddled with/cleaned the points even though they appeared new but couldn't find the correct gap in my service manual, so I left the gap alone, and put everything back together. Still nothing. I did a ohm test across the coil, and found there wasn't an open in the coil but it had very little resistance. I was unable to locate in my books what resistance was suppose to be across the coil. After about 2 hours, I turned it over, and it started. Just like that. No explaination, just started. I suspect the coil, or the condenser, but I'm not sure. I would hate for this to happen again and me not be in my driveway. Thanks in advance for any help.


Tom