Coil arcing

[Speakrdude]

Just repowered a 96 454, gen V. Runs very good, but noticed that the coil is arcing from the tower area every once in a while to either terminal or whatever is nearby.
Don't see any cracks. Bad coil? Bad coil wire?

 

[Bt Doctur]

The coil will arc when it is no longer connected to a spark plug or the wire from the coil tower to the dist cap is bad, or the rotor not making close contact to the lug inside the dist cap.

 

[bruceb58]

Like Bt DR said but add gap too wide on spark plugs or they are fouled. Basically, if the energy can't find a path to ground(normally through the spark plug) it will fine the next least resistive path. BTW, that's a common way for coils to fail as the energy will go through paths it is not supposed to within the coil itself.

 

[Speakrdude]

New plugs. gaps correct. Time to change cap, bug, and wires anyway, sounds like.