I was wondering if the pick-up coil on my remanufactured distributor is good or not.

I've tested 3 new pick-ups now and they all have tested below the specs. in the 74 FSM.

Have the specs changed or are they just cheap junk?

This is a common confusion for folks in the motorcycle business. Aftermarket pickup coils don't necessarily have the exact same resistance specs as the factory units. It doesn't necessarily indicate a problem. The resistance spec in the FSM is intended to be used as a diagnostic for evaluating the factory coil. If it measures out of spec some internal damage is indicated. An aftermarket coil with a different resistance can function perfectly but would have a different resistance spec to use for diagnosing a coil failure.

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--> Check out my FI Turbo build <--
--> And the race truck build project <--
--> The Diesel Corvette <--

So long as they aren't shorted or open they generally work fine. What resistance did you measure?

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Joshua

Thanks for the response Procycle and nice turbo by the way.

So, do you think they are as good quality wise if they have lower resistance than factory?

I guess I'm going to have to check with the manf. on their specs.

Well, I was getting 329, 297, 331, and 289. Oh, and the other thing I noticed was that 3 of them had what looked like a mangled metal pick-up bar (the tiny bar in the center of the pick-up). And these 3 were brand new individual items (I thought about just getting a new one for the remanf. distributor, which was the first reading above).

I can't speak to the quality. Maybe good maybe not but the measured resistance doesn't tell you one way or the other. A lower resistance could mean it makes a stronger signal. The fact that all 4 measured within 15% of each other seems OK to me. I personally wouldn't worry about it unless there was an actual ignition problem.

_________________
--> Check out my FI Turbo build <--
--> And the race truck build project <--
--> The Diesel Corvette <--

Unfortunately that is how I got onto this track. I do have an intermittent spark problem (missing at times and varies in quality from blue to weak red) that I was chasing down and when I checked the pickup resistance I thought I found my smoking gun.

I checked the rest of the ignition system, changed one wire and connector that was shorting at coil and no change to spark, but dash amp meter now is steady at idle instead of fluctuating.

I called the mfr. and was told that they don't have specs. for diagnosis and that they just buy them from some place in China (probably American owners though ) and put their name on them. So there is no way to know if there really good or not.

Anybody know of a good source???

Yup, Old Car Parts Northwest, who will sell you either a real (American-made) pickup coil or a real (NOS Chrysler) complete distributor so you can get out of the jail created by "remanufactured" garbage.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks Dan, I wasn't expecting to see anybody that still has NOS parts that are available. It looks like a nice source! I'll have to call and see how much he's selling those ignition parts for now a days.

74