Ignition Coil Died?!

[PDXAccord79]

So I was driving down the road today and all of a sudden the tac dropped to 0 and my charge and oil lights came on due to my engine dying very suddenly. Got it towed and took a look and there appears to be no spark coming from the coil. Dizzy turns, starter works, all other electrical works, just no coil. Tac doesn't move either when cranked but I do get power at the black/yellow wire.

So this coil was ran for 1000 miles before it did this. Does anyone have any idea as to why this would die like this? I'm thinking it was just bad but I'm not sure. I noticed the car was idling weird before this happened.

I'm planning on replacing it with this:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/acc-8140hv/overview/year/1979/make/honda/model/accord

Which has an epoxy core instead of liquid which should keep it from shaking itself to death. Anyone used one of these? Also does anyone have any leads on where to find the little condenser that goes on the firewall?

[2ndGenGuy]

I used a Blaster coil on mine for a while. And it worked great. I don't' see why you'd have any issue with that one. Do you still have the old coil? Swap it in and see if the problem persists? Did you also check your fuses, just to be sure? I've had a number of blown fuses in my car that looked ok, but had no continuity. I've had a bad habit lately of not checking simple things first...

[PDXAccord79]

Everything but the engine works :mad: I've checked the spark by using an inline spark tester light on the #1 plug and nothing. The guy who towed it also helped me check the spark coming off the coil wire and nothing. Tac does absolutely nothing but when it initially died it would rise just a bit (2mm or less) then fall down. The yellow/black (+) is hot and lights the test light nice and bright. Dizzy spins. I know it gets compression still since I had to use some of that to brake. Sounds like it should turn over on the starter. No fuses blown or funky looking. I'm thinking this is another Rock Auto "special" that was defective or beat up when shipped around. The somewhat shaky cold mornings and new, hard suspension could have shook it to death.

That blaster is at about the same specs as this one so I think it will be fine. I think I've also found a condenser so I'll swap it out and try it again.

[Hazwan]

Dying ICM perhaps? When mine died my tach doesn't work either, no spark too obviously.

[lostforawhile]

the module in the dizzy is probably dead, also disconnect the condensor and see if it starts, on these cars with electronic ignition, all it does is supress radio noise,if it shorts it will stop the ignition from running

[PDXAccord79]

This is a 79 so the ICM is on the outside. I did just replace the ICM recently thinking it was causing some jumping tac/idle issues. I kept the old ICM so I will go and plug that in today to see if it starts. I'll also pull the condenser going to the coil and condenser on the dizzy if this doesn't work. I'm starting to think this could be an el cheapo ICM issue.

[lostforawhile]

This is a 79 so the ICM is on the outside. I did just replace the ICM recently thinking it was causing some jumping tac/idle issues. I kept the old ICM so I will go and plug that in today to see if it starts. I'll also pull the condenser going to the coil and condenser on the dizzy if this doesn't work. I'm starting to think this could be an el cheapo ICM issue.
I had the same problem,four of them died out of the box, if its an external igniter, make sure the pickup in the dizzy is good

[PDXAccord79]

Dizzy is a rebuild and I had 0 problems with it before I swapped the ICM. I kept my old one that works so that gets swapped tonight. This might be a stupid issue, fingers crossed!

[Dr_Snooz]

Definitely sounds like an ICM failure, but it's strange that you're not getting any spark from the coil. Did you test the resistance on the coil?

[PDXAccord79]

My multimeter was at my apartment at the time so I just had a test light and spark test light. Just tested it against the block to see if it jumped and tested on the #1 plug with the spark test light. I didn't have a chance to swap the old one out tonight but I'll bring the multimeter tomorrow and figure it out.

[lostforawhile]

Definitely sounds like an ICM failure, but it's strange that you're not getting any spark from the coil. Did you test the resistance on the coil?

the icm triggers the coil, all the coil current goes through it, it interrupts the ground to the coil to cause the field collapse and the coil to fire,with a remote pickup, it tells the icm when to fie the coil,every time a reluctor tooth passes

[PDXAccord79]

You are correct! I think I'm going to plug the old ICM in tomorrow and it will go again. Here's a scan from the manual if anyone ever needs it.

http://i.imgur.com/dnQwSxt.png

[PDXAccord79]

ICM fixed it! Thanks for all the help.

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah buddy!!! Glad you got it going! Still got that hesitation?

[PDXAccord79]

Yep, just in 5th around 2800 RPM if I'm light on the throttle. If I put my foot down it smooths out but that results in me going 75+ so I've tried to live under 65 until I try a bigger jet. From what I've seen elsewhere this is a normal "dead spot" for this carb and going higher on the jet should fix it. No back fire, no smoking, no noise coming out of the hood beyond it sounding like it's missing fires due to a lack of gas.

I think I'm also going to replace the filter while I'm at it. The tank had not been filled in so long that the gas gauge was stuck. I'm guessing that there's all kinds of nasty in that filter right now.

It now idles higher than it did with the other ICM so I have to mess with that again. The tack will bounce ever so slightly (25 RPM) every so often but it sounds strong and idles smooth beyond that. I think I jumped the gun on the ICM replacement. The car just now passed 1000 miles, it still needs to wear in a bit. I also need to stop replacing stuff unless it's actually broken.

[2ndGenGuy]

I also need to stop replacing stuff unless it's actually broken.

Story of my last 2 weeks :/

[Dr_Snooz]

Story of my last 2 weeks :/

I keep re-learning that lesson too.

[Hazwan]

Same here haha ><