Expert: Sean Halliday - 9/24/2006

Question
I have a 1981 Toyota Pickup that starts intermittently.  While checking for spark at the coil, I noticed that the truck will start and run when the wire is held far enough from the coil to create an arc.  If I push the wire back into the coil, the truck stalls.  If I hold the wire out for a minute, I can push it back in, and the truck will continue to run.  The truck will usually start up normallly after doing this, until the next day or so, when it will do the same thing.  Is this a coil problem, or the ignition module?  How are these tested?

Answer
Yes its a bad coil.There is a rating  in the manual for these coils but what you describe is like a bad contact and also change the coil wire.Testing is done with a meter.Each coil must have a  certain ampage.It will tell you what it is if you have the workshop manual ,these are easy to get and are really a neccessity if you do work on your own car.The car wont run if the module is bad.