My 91 5.8 L Ford motor on my Four Winns came stock with the Prestolite Breakerless Inductive Distributor (BID) ignition.
I'm testing the coil to address some idle issues. I may replace the coil and want to be certain that I'm getting the right one.
The book says the stock coil is a OEM 3852217 or Sierra 18-5437. Some of the pictures of those coils do say "Use with external resistor". The coil on there now is a Diamond E-035. It also says right on it "Use with external resistor".
But I have seen a lot of discussion that an external resistor is only needed for a breakerpoint ignition and that if you were upgrading from a breakerpoint ignition to a breakerless ignition the ballast resistor was NOT to be used. The mechanic that used to work on the boat says he DID add the resistor. Was that wrong?
Is testing the primary and secondary resistance using a basic Ohm meter good enough or do I need to take it to someone with an analyzer?
I got 2 ohms on the primary if I wait till it stops changing (book says 1.43 - 1.58) On the secondary I get 7.2 Kohms (book says 7.5 - 8.7)
Thanks
I'm testing the coil to address some idle issues. I may replace the coil and want to be certain that I'm getting the right one.
The book says the stock coil is a OEM 3852217 or Sierra 18-5437. Some of the pictures of those coils do say "Use with external resistor". The coil on there now is a Diamond E-035. It also says right on it "Use with external resistor".
But I have seen a lot of discussion that an external resistor is only needed for a breakerpoint ignition and that if you were upgrading from a breakerpoint ignition to a breakerless ignition the ballast resistor was NOT to be used. The mechanic that used to work on the boat says he DID add the resistor. Was that wrong?
Is testing the primary and secondary resistance using a basic Ohm meter good enough or do I need to take it to someone with an analyzer?
I got 2 ohms on the primary if I wait till it stops changing (book says 1.43 - 1.58) On the secondary I get 7.2 Kohms (book says 7.5 - 8.7)
Thanks