Re: grounded primary?

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Adam,

At 10:55 AM 5/12/2002 -0400, you wrote: 
>The sparks are about 2". I don't know anything about the coil except that 
>the transformer appears to be 8-10Kv. I can's get access to the caps. It is 
>a roadery spark gap. It appears to be made by someone who knew what they 
>were doing. 
>Thanks
>Adam
>

Sounds like something has failed.  Either the caps or NST.  Perhaps some
physical damage.  If the coil is very old and/or there are no markings on
the parts to identify their values and ratings, it would have to be taken
all apart and basically reverse engineered to find the problems and the
type of replacement part it needs.  This is fairly hard to do without some
test equipment.

If the coil can be taken apart, maybe the primary tap point is just wrong
or something is just not wired right.

You make look and smell around the coil for burning, arc marks, leaks or
other odd damage that would indicate where something may be broken.


At 12:38 PM 5/12/2002 -0400, you wrote: 
>Can someone give me some information (or better yet, a web site) on building 
>a Rotary Spark Gap.

See John's site at:

http://hometown.aol-dot-com/futuret/page3.html

Cheers,

	Terry