How to test a coil (with a little help from the ARMY) (LONG)

Testing a (bad) coil and a GOOD condensor using an Army surplus Sun tester.

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester1.jpg"?

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester2.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester3jpg.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester4.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester5.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester6.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester7.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester8.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester9.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester10.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester11.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester12.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Coil%20Tester/CoilTester13.jpg">

where do you find these goodies at????

soundguy

That is a great tester! I have a commercial one that has a regular-sized bulb socket for the leakage test. The bulb is missing, and I have no idea what bulb is required for replacement. The condenser test has a scale for millifarads, which is great.

I can post a photo if anyone thinks they can identify it.

Bob, it would be a lot more interesting if we knew what the machine was doing in each test &amp; perhaps units read. Coil test doesn't appear to address HV?

I found it 10 years or so ago laying on a pile of scrap at a nearby recycling yard.

There's a tech college on a nearby Indian Reservation and from time to time they "clean house" and I'm GUESSING that's where it came from.

IIRC, it cost me $2.00.

mili farads or micro farads?

soundguy

I put the photos in order... each meter photo is preceded by the test selector setting showing the test being performed.

The "coil test" is obviously a "ringing test" and there's no explanation in the manual of the units used, just a "GOOD" and "BAD" range on the meter.

I have used it for YEARS and have never had a voltage output problem with a coil that it showed to be "GOOD".

If any ignition problems persist, I take a look at the firing voltage on my ignition 'scope.

Oh, yeah, in the last photo I DID annotate it with ".37 mfd".

It shows up will when I view my Photobucket album, but blurred here. Go figure!

sweet.

best i'v ever been able to come up with is an old signal gen ( with the oil pot on top to cool the tubes ) from a lcoal college doing a rummage sale. has 2 inputs and outputs.. one input stage has a bad tube.. one day I really need to repalce it. thing is big like a 19" tv and makes great ballast for holding down my concrete garage floor.

me and my buddy messed around long ago with using audio from a radio station as an input source.. add a lil modulation and an antenna and avoid the fcc for a while..

of course that reminds me of the time we built a working xmitter at the elec lab at high school. it was a mid year project.. we had to build somehting and let it run a week.. as an endurance test.. my partner was that same buddy.. couple three days into the 'test' FCC actually showed up at the school after triangulating the signal. we let it running using audio from.. um.. a good music station, but unfortunately the freq range of another .. um.. not so enjoyable station.. as a um.. test... got called out of class to report to the elec lab one day... both of us.. our instructor was there with a guy in a suit and the dean... instructor asked us what the scope of our 'project' involved.. me and my friend looked at each other and said something generic like 'radio frequency propogation' the instructor then introduced us to mr so and so from the fcc. at that point my buddy and me looked at each other and said.. well.. I guess we better go shut it down. all the adults nodded and remained quiet. about 10 seconds later after snatching a bunch of wires off breadboards the guy from the fcc simply said.. ' I assume this will never happen again' we nodded, he left, dean stood there for a moment.. said nothing.long pause... he left.. instructor stood there for a moment quiet.. said.. well.. i guess you were getting good range... we got an 'a' on that project even though it was not set up and running at the end of the week during the grading period.. strangly nothing was ever actually said during those few tense moments.. and wasn't ever mentioned again. I did find it funny though when one day the power went off at the entire school and the dean walked down to the elec lab to see if me and my buddy were in class and accounted for...

.. decades ago...

soundguy

Used to find neat stuff like that in the real Army and Navy surplus stores.I used to peruse the store as a kid,still had plenty of old guns and stuff from WW11.All the equipment went cheap,but I had no idea what the heck it was.Good old days---lha

Probably micro. I'll have to look.

Jock

yep.. unless it has a WHOLE lot of capacity.. or is a real small number.. like .1 milli farads

soundguy