[AT] grounded coil

[Doug Tallman]

At 12:08 AM 8/30/2007 -0700, you wrote:
>Yes you just
> >> might be correct if for some reason somewhere sometime someone made a
> >> coil that has to be grounded but in all the years that I been around
> >> I have never seen nor heard of one so my statement of NO still stands
> >> for me anyway.
> >> Now that doesn't include all of the pre WW-I engines that I'm sure
> >> none of us own or work on.
> >>
> >> Ron

Ron, ever see a GM HEI unit with the coil in the cap? Ever wonder what the 
little metal strip is that goes in the cap and the coil sits on? It is 
designed to ground the coil. Years back, the head of the local school bus 
garage called and asked if I would come look at a bus that had burnt 5 
coils in 2 years. Checking the service records showed the first coil had 
failed about 90 days after a normal maintenance tune-up. Everyone had been 
telling him bad plug wires were causing it and they had been replaced twice 
in the time period. I stopped by to look and he was putting the new coil in 
the new cap without the ground strap. We looked in the old cap, no ground 
strap. He bought the ground strap and it was the last coil he put in the 
bus. Probably just a fluke, right?? The engineer that designed the system 
probably added the ground strap just to add to the cost and confusion?? NOT
I wouldn't be too quick to think that none of us own or work on pre-WW1 
engines, I can prove you wrong again. OH, I forgot, I'm a nobody. Back to 
lurk mode.
             Doug Tallman
VGTCOA Ohio Regional Director
       Greenwich, Ohio, USA