Escort electrical, COIL!! - Page 2 - Ford Forums

alaska13 · 11-07-2009, 19:26

I had two people look at the alternator last week(took it out of the car).. it seemed to be ok. I loaded it up when it was in the car... lights, fans, everything, and it dropped to 13.7... and came up to 14.2 with nothing running. Unless it spikes once in a while it seems ok. I had the alternator rebuilt this last Winter.. but that was mostly bearings. The field wire was a bit loose so I replaced the clip on it. I will check my battery voltage tomorrow after it sits all night without that room "short" draw. It was at 11.6 this am.. so the battery may not be getting up to voltage, keeping the regulator running.. but the last coil got taken out in like 10 minutes of operation, so something was REALLY out of whack. Maybe It was the coil harness not getting good connection...I cleaned that up best I could.

thanks again for your help!

**rtg143** · 11-07-2009, 20:07

Do the coils look normal and just quit working or do you see something burnt on them? As far as the alternator, it could be good, but if the wire it senses the voltage to the battery is not giving it the actual voltage to the system, it would think it had to keep charging when in fact, it's overcharging. Check the main power fuse connection in the fuse box and the other wires there too.

alaska13 · 11-07-2009, 20:14

The coils look normal .. when good they are supposed to test 12.5 ohms across the 2...3 and the 1..,4,,, the "bad" ones have no resistance across 1..4.. though a couple of the non working new coils tested only a few ohms lower on the 1..4 but did not work. I will run through the alternator again tomorrow.. that was my first thought, that my regulator was not working.. I will look at it again. thanks

alaska13 · 11-10-2009, 21:41

escort update

Well, my wife has driven it to work two times, so far so good. Not sure it is fixed though.. the last coil actually lasted 1500 miles. I cleaned the coil harness as best I could.. soaked the female plugs in electric cleaner.. cleaned the male ends. Coated it all in dielectric gel, and put it back together.. it's running great.. alternator seems to be doing it's thing. Any tests a guy could run to see if the coil is doing ok??

**rtg143** · 11-10-2009, 22:28

No test can be done without special equipment. What voltage did you get at the coil with the engine running?