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Hello All:
Last night I fired up the coil again and it simply didn't work as well
as the previous week. I had made several changes, so it looks like I'll
have to hunt through all of these things this week to find what is now
the new gremlin. Spark length was shorter and not very intense and the
system power draw was down to about 40% of the original level. The
items changed were:
1.) I lengthened the main secondary ground, it was about 6' now it is
11'--the entire length is 1' wide .015" solid copper strap. Out of a
dead IMB mainframe!
2.) I terminated the end of the secondary with a short piece of the
same 1" copper strap and now I have a place on the toroid that it slips
into--I had that hot spot one week ago.
3.) The spark gap was physically move a small amount, one press fit
copper cpnnection was soldered and all other retightened.
4.) My moveable primary tap lead was shortened by about 10", so now it
is a nice clean run up to what "used to be" a reasonable tap
point--maybe not the best, I hadn't found out yet, but sure a whole lot
better than what I got Sunday night.
5.) I actually used a buffing pad and polished the primary--too much
idle time I guess.
6.) My spark gap was arcing without a whole lot of intensity while all
this poor performance was going on. It would get louder and brighter
for short moments and the pole pig current draw woud shoot back to the
original level. That would only last for a very short burst. I think I
will start looking at the gap, with the above items in mind too. I had
just completely given the gap a visual exam for the static portion and
also polished the rotary static electrodes.
I hope to look for obvious problems Monday evening here, it would be
nice if something jumped right out screamed "I'm the problem!" Probably
won't happen that way! As always, any ideas or suggestions will be
considered. Please note how I changed multiple items at the same time,
in order to make the faulty change, more fun to locate.
Chuck Curran