Original poster: "Dr. Resonance" <resonance@xxxxxxxxxx> Yes, very good chance you did.When you removed the secondary coil, you removed the "load". The primary Q factor increases tremendously and the primary voltage with increase as Q x Erms so the primary voltage went suddenly very high which usually blows caps and xmfrs. Never operate under power without the sec coil in place!
It's like taking the load off your car engine, ie, putting it into neutral, then flooring the gas pedal until the engine blows. No load, high rpm and engine death. No load in Tesla circuit, extremely high Q factor, high primary voltage until cap blows or xmfr blows. A Terry filter might have saved your xmfr but this is the worst possible case for the cap and xmfr.
Dr. Resonance
Original poster: "Victor Valencia" <victor_valencia2@xxxxxxxxxx> I was trying to tune the spark gap by sequentially increasing the total gap. I disconnected/removed the secondary coil before starting. Eventually there was a spark that jumped between the primary and the safety rail (goes to ground) but I forgot to connect the ground wire and it was connected to the primary case only. Now nothing happens when I turn it on. Did I fry my primary transformer?? Victor Ay-yuh, 99.9% chance Matt D.