Recieve shock from cable that goes from distro to coil -Issue Resolved

[Supraquick]

The car idles wierd sometimes. At night if I pop the hood and the cable is close to metal you can see little electricity lines that go towards the metal.

I changed the distributor cap.
I bought two separate sets of spark plug cable sets and all have done the same thing. All other cables work fine and there is no shock or electricity arcing over.

Any Ideas?

I also changed the coil that I got from the junk yard.

If i grab the cable and move it away from Metal thats is around the engine the car runs fine, but if i put it close to ex. the intake manifold or it gets close to the alt bolt it will idle wierd.

I have moved it away but as I drive around it moves and ends up falling back to touch or get close to metal.

Please help.

 

[hvyman]

What plug wires are you using? You replace the coil wire correct?

Never had that problem when i used new oem wires.

 

[boomienutcake]

Wow, that's out there man. Try checking the ground wire running from the coil onto the fender. Make sure the body contact doesn't have any rust or paint on it, and that your terminal isn't corroded on the bottom.

I took some sandpaper to both contact points, as well as Crisp's ground mod: http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?52217-IGNITER-GROUND...-crispics

Be VERY CAREFUL if you do the mod though, the screws on the bottom of the casing can be real tight and may want to strip out or break off.

 

[Supraquick]

I'm using ngk 8mm and also used 7mm coil cable pro start brand from pepboys.

 

[legolyle]

sounds like you might need to check your grounds

The high voltage is going for the path of least resistance, and if that path of least resistance is the metal nearest the cable then that might mean your grounds aren't doing their job. If the grounds were in good condition, then the path of least resistance WOULD be: wires->plugs->block->battery/body.

check your grounds by first making sure:
-cables are fully plugged into the plugs
-the plugs ceramic insulator is not damaged (just a thought)
-the plugs have good grounding contact with the block-is there something in the threads keeping them from making good contact with the block? oil is non-conductive and could cause the plugs to not make contact with the block I think.

check all of your wiring and all of your grounds. The ones at the block, the body, and the battery.

you should also make sure the current is actually able to make its way to the plugs-maybe check the rotor, and test each plug/wire for spark.

just my suggestion

 

[Supraquick]

Thanks for the input, i'll recheck the grounds. The cap is brand new and I did test each spark plug is getting spark by removing one by one and watching the spark.

 

[legolyle]

you could also pull all the plugs, attach the cords to each plug, and ground each plug directly or something-try turning it over like that. If you still have issues with the electricity going for the nearest metal, then your problem should be in the distributor...because that's all that remains other than the cord running from the coil.

You would also want to check your timing, because if for some reason it is horribly off and the distributor is not grounding out the plugs as the current is sent to the plug, then as I said before, the electricity goes for the path of least resistance-which is the body/metal around the wire. although I'm not 100% on if the timing could actually be THAT off, still you should check it, eliminate it as a possibility-esp. because of the crappy idle.

 

[Poodles]

Dirty or damaged plug wires is the usual issue.

 

[jetjock]

^ This. It sure as heck ain't that other ooga-booga...

 

[Supraquick]

yeah thats what i was told but I have already gone through 3 new sets of plug wire sets. Its wierd because the other plug cables do not shock you at all. Only the one from the coil to the distro.

This morning i turned it on and it had a rough idle. I moved the plug cable up to where it wouldn't touch the valve cover and it ran fine instantly I put it back down and had issues again. Wierd..

I quadruple checked the plug wires were seated in all the way on the coil, and distro side.

 

[boomienutcake]

Did you check the ground I mentioned from the back of the igniter? Should be absolutely clean. I believe the wire color is white/red.

Also, this is going to sound ridiculous, but are you sure the high tension is plugged into the middle of the cap correctly? Should snap in just like they do onto the spark plugs. The leads like creepin up into the boots sometimes...

---------- Post added at 01:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 AM ----------

Don't want to forget to mention, and just checking - did you goop it up with that dielectric gel they sometimes give you with new wires? That stuff isn't conductive.

 

[legolyle]

It's almost definitely an issue with grounding/connections then. potential is extremely high in that wire, so its easy for the current to redirect to the body/metal if it doesn't have a good connection. you need to check every single connection that the electricity makes from the start of the wire all the way back to the battery/body ground (I know I've already said that lol), and yeah, do what boomie said, make sure its plugged in! lol

 

[Supraquick]

K thanks ill get sand paper and go through the grounds just to make sure. As far as cable connection the are in all the way. To make sure I pulled the sleeves back and put in the cable, I then pushed the rubber boot into place.

 

[Poodles]

As I already said, dirty or damaged plug wires. It doesn't take much. A graphite pencil is enough to cause a short to ground, it's a terrible prank to pull on someone, but it illustrates how little is needed...

 

[Supraquick]

Poodles, thanks for the feedback, your post haven't gone ignored, I have been through 3 brand new sets of spark plug wires, 1 NGK brand and 2 pepboys brands. I returned them thinking they were deffective as I thought that same exact thing, but i think there is a short somewhere. Its just wierd that its the same symptom with all 3 wires sets.

The dizzy cap is new and I double checked all connections are clean and inserted properly. Thats what has me puzzled.

I did check the connection on the back of the igniter and it looks dirty as it if was covered with old greese or something. I will use the sand paper and clean the grounds to see what happends.

 

[Supraquick]

Guess what guys. After rechecking doing grounds still had same issues. I took it to my uncles shop and left it there over night. He came back around and told me the rotor cap in the dizzy was the wrong one. He said it was too short and wide. He said once he got the right part everything was good.

So now im driving it and it is good. Before it idled above 1200 and now its below about 700 or so, its so smooth now and now misses what so ever!! I though I might share this, I guess we would have never guessed it. Im glad my uncle figured it out. He said the spark was so big that it was jumping around everywhere and escaping where it could. Cable doesn't shock.

Now I have two sets of cables which are good. Turns out the Coil was good all along as well as the igniter so I have a spare coil and igniter too.

 

[jetjock]

Not far from what Poodles said about the old pencil trick, although I'm puzzled why someone experiencing those sorts of secondary ignition problems would change cap and wires yet ignore the rotor. And of course it wasn't grounding. That theory made no sense.

 

[Supraquick]

Yeah I figured it wouldn't be the ground but did it anyways. The rotor looked pretty new actually so I didn't think it would be the problem. The problem was that the rotor was too short and causing the excess spark and bridging everywhere. I bought the car with this problem so I guess previous person troubleshooting lead to this. Perhaps given the wrong part?? lol

Im glad for all your guys help.