5.0 HO Cobra Coil Voltage Concerns

[kschnebly]

I had posted last week about my 1990 Four Winns not staying running unless the starter was engaged. Before everything on the Forum got deleted several people had given me some pointers on tracing down some problems. I found that the Coil POS connection was only at 4 bolts. After much tracing and checking I believe that it was the main engine harness not making a good connection. I was able to get 12 volts to the coil but unfortunately I checked it again later and it was back down to 4 volts. When it was 12V it started and stayed running without the starter. I fear that I have a bad wire in the harness. I have 12V on the purple wire on the female side of the harness. I want to simply run a new 12v over to the coil. I plan to swap out the coil with an internally resisted coil. The one on it now says it needs to have an external resistor (Which for the life of me I cant find). I am attaching a picture of the wiring diagram that show the connection I want to cut and the connection I want to add. Can anyone weigh in on this?

 

[kschnebly]

No Title

 

[bruceb58]

The external resistor is actually a resistance wire. I would stick with the coil you have. Your coil is fine.

You have points?

 

[kschnebly]

Update: I changed the coil out today with a new internally resisted one. Ran a new 12v feed from the ignition to the new coil. I am very glad to say that it made all the difference. Runs excellent and was able to finally get over 4000 rpms on the water. WOT was 4500 at 44mph. Top end improved by 10mph. Thanks again for all the pointers.

 

[LAC_STS]

Kind of the same thing happened to me. I didnt have any starting problems but my top end was not that great and would sputter over 3500 RPMs. I added a ballast resistor to fix my problem. The reason you cant find a ballast resistor was prob because you have a resistor wire. Its in the harness. I think those resistor wires go bad sometimes. There is a part in my manual that says how to test the resistor wire and if its bad to replace the harness.

Glad you fixed it though.