Re: Coil Wires

[Jeff Taylor <jbtaylor@domain.elided>]

Tom-

If you have regular stock-type resistor wires the resistance will be about 10
to 20 KOhms per foot (when new, as they age the resistance increases). So even
when you "short" the coil wire it's not really a short, the battery sees a
10,000+ Ohm load. At 12.4 V this is only 1.24 milliamps (simple DC circuit,
Ohm's Law works beautifully *here* <grin>) this isn't enough to create any spark.

Jeff

Tom Mandera wrote:

> 
> 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