Ignition problems in my 1981?

[carlospena96]

Today I drove my 1981 FI spider and it start very good, but when the engine is hot, the cars got electrical issues, the coil gets very hot and if a put directional light (blinker light) the cars want to stall, when the car cool down a bit it goes normally, it's something wrong with the coil? Are the spark plugs wires bad? The coil need a resistor in the electronic ignition on this model?

[AriK]

Likely you need to change the coil. Some years ago i had this problem and unfortunately the coil was the last thing i tried and it cured the problem. The coil should get warm relative to the engine bay temperature but not too hot to touch.

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... ri#p108011

[divace73]

Also check the voltage drop across your ignition switch, with age they build up resistance and 12V may go in but 10V may come out.
I cleaned mine out and relayed a lot of the power sapping circuits.

[carlospena96]

It is the second coil and have the same issue, also I put a coil with internal resistance but the car won't start, it is a bad ecu? why this happen only when it is hot?, why the coil gets very hot?

[carlospena96]

Pd: every 10 miles need to cool down the coil because it's insanely hot, even the body panel where is the coil attached gets very hot

[So Cal Mark]

coils get hot, that's why it's mounted on a heat sink and filled with oil. If your turn signals cause stalling, you're low on electrical power. Fix the voltage drop in your system

[carlospena96]

This happen only when the coil it's really hot, when a put turn signal, brakes or any light the cars wants to stall or stall, when the car cooldown for about 15-20 minutes, the car is normal

[spider2081]

Do you know voltage at the coil + terminal with the engine running???
Have you removed the distributor cap and inspected the wires for the pick-up inside the distributor. The insulation is prone to failure.

Do you have someone close by you can swap coil packs with. It is an easy swap and doing so changes the coil and ignition control module.

Are you sure you have the coil wires on the correct coil terminals? Terminal 16 or + has the pink wire from the ignition switch, the red wire from the control module mounted under the coil, and the black wire for the radio noise filter

the D terminal has the black wire from the ignition control module and 2 brown wires with a white trace.

Have you disconnected the brown wire with a white trace that goes to the tachometer to see if that changes anything.

[carlospena96]

Check the voltage and a see a little drop when I put turning signal, the other parts are ok, the magnetic pickup is new, the wires are okay, next week hopefuly change the distributor cap and the rotor, still don't know why the coil gets pretty hot, I use two different coils and control modules and give me the same issue, when the coil is fresh the car is awesome on highway or places where theres a fluid traffic, but when I'm in the city or in a traffic jam the coil gets pretty hot

[carlospena96]

Hello everybody, I found the problem, it was the coil itself, it has a resistance of 2.3 ohms between positive and negative side, when it get tempeture the resistance get higher, I put a 1.6 ohms external resistance to try recreate the problem and actually happen, the original service manual of the spider say that the original marelli coil on 79 models and on the resistance is about 0.75 to 0.81 ohms, thats a very low resistance, so I guess with a higher resistance the energy of the coil "cuts" and cause the car stall, because with the high resistance the spark is low.
I ordered a marelli coil code AEI 200A for electronic distributor, and hopefully the problem solve