Help! I'm burning up coils.

[m37brat]

I have an original M43 and I have been going through coils like water. At first it only happened if the ignition switch was left on with the engine off. Today I burned up 2 coils while driving the truck to a show. They went while the truck was traveling at 45 MPH. Is it possible that the capacitor is bad? Is there a resistor in the system somewhere? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[achiem37]

Do you have the distributor vent / cooling lines installed on your truck?. These are important for removing the coil heat from inside the distributor housing. If they are attached are they plugged or something like that?. I know my truck used to carbon track inside the cap across two or three terminals. The caps were the black ones and I suspect that the material is crap compared to the original brown ones. I installed a large ceramic resistor to lower the coil voltage down to 14 volts versus 26 volts when running. It made little difference on the engine an I noticed no decrease in speed or performance. Perhaps you should check your coils voltage supply. If your generator / regulator set up is overcharging the higher voltage can hurt these parts. Terry

[m37brat]

Thanks Terry. The coiling lines are attached and I am going to use my compressor to blow them out. How did you install the resistor and where can I buy on? Could the capacitor cause overheating?

Jim

[MSeriesRebuild]

Thanks Terry. The coiling lines are attached and I am going to use my compressor to blow them out. How did you install the resistor and where can I buy on? Could the capacitor cause overheating?

Jim

Do more than blow them out. Remove the brass fittings from the carb inlet elbow for inspection. Both fittings are a special type, if they are not correct, there will be no forced air flow through the distributor housing. It isn't possible to tell except to remove them. Also check the ones in the distributor housing, for some reason it is fairly common to find they have been filled with solder. Most people simply don't realize they are basically disabling the vehicle when this air flow is stopped. If all is correct within the electrical system and ventilation is working; a resistor is not necessary.