hey anyone have an idea as to why a jeep would keep burning up coils... I am on my second coil in 3 weeks with the wifes jeep. I put in a howell kit in it in may and it ran fine till like 3 or 4 weeks ago and then I it would intermitently not run. I wasnt getting fuel to the injectors or fire to the plugs. now as far as I know the injectors get there signal to fire from the tach signal on the coil and of course with no fire from the coil I dont get the injector pulse. so anyway I changed the coil and all was good for the last 3 weeks and know it has started again any place to start looking to find out what is causeing my coils to burn up

Does the coil require a ballast resistor and are you using one? Does the Howell kit change some of the 12 volt wiring that supplies the coil? If so, the old wiring may have had a resistor wire or a ballast resistor that is missing out of the new setup. Sounds like the coil may be getting too much voltage.

there is that little thing that sits on the side of the coil it is gone.... I always thought it was there for noise.... what is this thing is it what you are talking about

I would assume that the "thing" you are referring to is a ballast resistor. An automotive coil is built to run at around 8 VDC constantly so the manufacturers put a ballast resistor on the positive side of the coil to reduce the voltage to about 8 volts. During starting the resistor is bypassed so the coil sees 12 VDC and has a higher output. If you have a bad ballast, that is one that is allowing 12VDC through, it over heats the coil and makes the motor run like crap once it has been running for a while. Eventually the coil burns out.

thanks alot you just saved me a huge headache I will get it replaced and see if it takes care of my problem

It would help to know what year the wife's Jeep is.

That little thing on the side was probably just a condensor. It if was a little silver canister that's what it was. Howell's wiring does nothing to change the ignition of the Jeep. Any '78 and newer will have a resistor wire, not a ballast resistor if it has the stock ignition harness.

Have you contacted Howell's tech line and asked them ?? They are pretty good about answering tech questions.

she has a 88 wrangler 4.2.... no I havnt contaced howell I to dont really think it is a howell problem I think it is the noraml jeep problem I knew I should have just found a4.3 to put in

back to top... anyone want to confirm what has been said in this thread...

I've had my Howell EFI in a '83 CJ7 for several years now and have loved every minute. Back when I did mine Howell recommended adding an ignition relay to power the ignition (duh) rather than have the power go through the ignition switch and factory wiring ... this was suggested for more reliability I believe.

I did it because I was ripping out as much crappy wiring as possible, so that meant the factory ignition module (mounted to the left fender) and the resistor wire which powers the ignition coil.

Don't know if they've changed their wiring harnesses since I got mine, but if you did what I did then "Yes" your coil is getting a solid 12 volts rather than what's provided through a ballast resistor (as a wire or otherwise) which is about 8 volts.

You should be able to get a generic ballast resistor and connect it in front of the coil + ... or change to a 12Volt coil. Or even better, swap out the whole ignition for a HEI setup. Way better cold starts and torque on the bottom end!

CP

I check the pwer at the coil today and the yellow wire is running at 9.88 to 10 vdc wit the jeep running. now the thing is only running 10.85 volts during crank..... what do you think

ok here is a pic from my haynes manual it shows what iam missing but I cant seem to find what it is called....

http://www.delawareja.com/gallery/data/538/21coilpic.jpg

well after letting the jeep get warmed up it is running at about 10.45 to 10.5 constant.....

That's a condenser ... only there for radio interferance.

CP

thats what I thought I am going to get a resistor wire from napa P\N ECHLIN ICR22 and put it then unless osme one has more guidance on what it is based on the power I have posted