Coil Wires

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

Arghhh!

Climb in the Scout, fire it up, drive to my client's building.  Take care of
business, just under an hour later, I head out to the Scout.

No amount of choke, throttle, or cussing would make it start.  Try it a few
more times.... bzzzt.

OK, embarassment, pop the hood, poke my head underneath.... yep, fuel in the
filter... yep, flooded.  ;)

Floor it, crank it, nothing.

Hmm.. where's that can of ether?

NOTHING.

Must be ignition... 

Check wires.. all seated, looks ok.  Still no start.

Yank a plug wire and try my best to hold my arm in the window to crank..
can't get a spark.

Check the dist. cap... seems like it fits a little loose... yank it off,
check things, put it back on... no start.

Yank coil wire... impossible to hold it and crank the motor.. dang.

Hmm.. bad coil wire?  Yank coil wire, yank spark plug wire and substitute..
sitll won't start.

???

Take coil wire, lay it across the battery... no spark.  Try it on some
accessory fuses in the cab... no spark.

*scratch head*

Put the coil wire back in place (10th time or so) and push in, then pull out
just a little bit... 

Turn key, fires right up on the first spin.

Argh!

Time for new wires I guess... ;)

Why does the coil wire not spark when I short it over the battery?  One of
the sparkplug leads didn't spark, either... bad wires, or is this normal?

the fun never ends...

-Tom