Why isnt my ignition coil working?

Question

Im not sure exactly how they work, so pretty much Im just trying to get a high voltage spark, the coil has a + and - terminal, and a terminal in the middle for Im not sure what, I applied 12volts to the + and - terminals and nothing happens, am I doing this wrong, also the coil says use external resistor if it matter, any help getting this thing to work would be great.

Answer 1

what kind of veh are you working on?

Answer 2

if you are working with a standard coil  the + terminal is where you connect the power source ie: 12volt battery the- negative terminal is for a ground the center terminal is the output using a coil wire kinda of like a short spark plug wire be very careful not to shock yourself or anyone else with this set up it can and has caused serious burns, irregular heart beat and DEATH IT HAS THE POSSIBILITY OF OUT PUTTING 40,000 VOLTS NOT SOMETHING TO BE PLAYED  WITH ESPECIALLY IF NOT USING A EXTERNAL RESISTOR

Answer 3

You want it to work outside of the car?

the - terminal is the common. tie it to your ground and common. The + is for the distributor points connection. The other terminal is for the High voltage output.

Apply +12 volts via a small power resistor, perhaps 2 ohms 20 watts. Each time you touch the +12 volt terminal, a brief high voltage (thousands of volts) spike will be appear on the HV terminal.

You may need a special capacitor across the primary of the coil.

To show this, get a spark plug and some high voltage wire. Run a piece of the wire from the HV terminal to the spark plug. Make sure the threaded part of the plug is also grounded.

see

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ignition-sy...

Answer 4

Presumably you have set up a contact gap between the output (HV) and case like a spark plug or two wires close to each other.

The spark is created on the HV when the 12 volts connection is broken so for a continuing spark you need something to switch on and off the 12 volts like the ignition system would do on the vehicle. You need more than 1.5 amps so all you are doing is killing your power supply. Connect it to a car battery.

The resistor should be there when using the coil on a vehicle. The resistor is bypassed when cranking the engine to give a stronger spark. Having no resistor will, eventually, burn up the coil if used continually. You don't need one for short bursts.

As a point of safety, keep clear of the HV, it can give you a nasty shock. This also goes for the low voltage connections on the coil as these can also give you a nip as the voltage is removed.