Repositioning coil to prevent leaks

[S2GART]

Just a quick back story. Bought my SC in Oct '05 and have had to replace 3 coils since then. The most recent one was last night. I have read through other threads about coils made in Brazil, leaking. This coil that died on me last night was one of these "leakers". My thought was that the cooling fluid (oil) got too low and the coil overheated. 2 questions, why would Porsche mount a coil upside down which can only help facilitate the leaks. After all, the top is only crimped on. Also, can't one just switch the coil around to prevent the leak. I am giving this some consideration based on my theory that the coil only failed because it leaked. This coil that failed on me was put in Oct. 2007./17,000 miles ago. Time wise that isn't too bad, but mileage wise it is.

My other question is about wiring to the coil. Because I have had a history of the car leaving me stranded due to bad coils, I have been traveling around since Apr 2008, with a spare coil. Well I was at a friends house last night, go to leave and....... So I switched out the coils and went on my way. In looking at the old coil and the new one, I noticed that the coils are position differently with in the bracket. By different I mean 180 degs. The wires on the old one were as such; White went to the "A" terminal and the brown/white wire went to the "-" terminal. As I said I just bolted in the new coil and away I went. Only now I notice that the terminal positions are opposite. So I looked at the Bentley manual to verify how it should be, but I only got more confused because the manual says the White wire goes to "A" and the "BRN/RED" wire goes to "-" What BRN/RED wire? Sooooooo where do I stand? How it's connected to the coil now, works because I made it home with no issue, but is this going to cause a problem later on?

[wwest]

Put the ENTIRE issue to BED, while also increasing the SPARKS dramatically.

[mpetry]

yeah, but that Accel thing is not period correct, it would look all wrong on the fan shroud.

So, a little more info here - are you sure you don't have another problem, like an intermittent contact in the key switch or bad engine ground ? Problems like these masquerade as other faults, and when you shotgun parts they go away, if you are lucky !

What exactly is the failure ? Crank but no fire ? Have you looked at the wiring to the coil, are you getting a full 12V? Have you tried static timing your engine ? Points or hall effect sensor in the dizzy working OK? Replaced high current lead and green wire ?

More info will help us track down the root cause.

[S2GART]

Again, this was last night. Engine crank strong, no ignition. Pulled coil wire off (from experience) with help from my friend we crank the engine with the coil wire near metal to see if there was a spark, but there was none. Swapped out with the spare (new) coil I had with me, she fired right up. Today, just for s&*ts and giggles I put the old coil back in, nothing..... Put the new one in, fired up like a champ.

The old coil had been leaking fluid and since this coil was nearly 6 years old (in car) I figured it was the fluid loss that contributed or rather caused the coil to perhaps overheat and hence, fail. Also if I remember correctly the one that failed in 2007 had evidence of fluid leakage. Since this seems to be a common problem, seemingly due to the orientation of the coil, I posed the question about repositioning the coil so that it is upright or at least pointing upwards.

As for a green wire....what green wire? To the coil there are 2 wires. One is white and the other is brown with a white stripe.

I replaced the whole spark plug wire set (Beru) last year so the coil wire to the distributor is new.

I am more concerned about which wire (white,brown w/white) goes to which terminal on the coil. What happens if you cross them? As I mentioned, the orientation of the old coil had the word Bosch (in the plastic) at the bottom. The new one has it at the top, hence the terminals are flipped. When putting it in last night via a flashlight, I just reconnected the wires without changing their position.

[mpetry]

there are 2 terminals on the coil, marked + and - . The + terminal should have 2 wires, black and white, crimped into a single connector. The brown / red wire should go to the - terminal on the coil. If those wires are reversed, it won't run, of course.

[timmy2]

Different years have different coil wire colors.
The '83 should have a brown with white stripe to negative and a white wire to positive of the coil.
The "green wire" is the coax that plugs into the base of the distributor.
I went with the "blingy" MSD Blaster II coil due to the failure rates of the Bosch units and price. Could always paint it Black I guess...

[Jesset100]

Pelican Parts - Product Information: MSD-PN8222

[wwest]

Originally Posted by mpetry

there are 2 terminals on the coil, marked + and - . The + terminal should have 2 wires, black and white, crimped into a single connector. The brown / red wire should go to the - terminal on the coil. If those wires are reversed, it won't run, of course.

The only affect reversing the coil(transformer) connections with CDI would be reverse spark voltage direction. Same is probably also true for a kettering system, just never tried that.