Re: Ignition Coil

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Cydesho-at-aol-dot-com>

I was curious about some experiences that I've had with the ignition 
coil-dimmer-capacitor circuit. All of the text that I've ever read has said 
that a 1 or 2 uF motor run cap is all that is needed. Whenever I have used a 
cap of this size, the output from the coil is in the form of blue sparks. It 
seems that there must be an extremely small amount of current coming out of 
the coil. The only way I've ever gotten an output that resembles the output 
from an NST is with 34uF cap. This had held true for all of the various 
ignition coils and dimmers that I've used.  I have tried a wide range of 
values for the capacitor. The output starts to be capable of actually arcing 
instead just sparking with a capacitor rated at 15uF. Does anyone have any 
idea why this would be happening? I can't find any problems with the way I've 
wired it. There's not a whole lot that can go wrong witth the wiring, there 
are only three components.
                                                 Justin