Well,
I gotta say here in the last 3 years especially, the quality of these pickup coils is suspect at best. I have had more problems with these damn things lately than ever.
Brand makes no difference, it used to. Lately the old standbys are worse than the cheap stuff. Some will unexpectedly go awol on you, had 3 do that. Lasted about 2 weeks and then poof no working those were Standard coils. Then there was a friend of mine who puts together way more of these things than I do, who got a bad batch from Delco that were wrong polarity. Most lately will just be out of alignment.
This stuff isn't the newest, current, most technologically mind boggling part on a car anymore, so you gotta figure they got a bunch of .50 cent an hour labor slapping this stuff together thesedays.
With that said... I absolutely hate and have had little luck with anything that,that "Zoned out" place sells electrically. However, they do have one thing I will buy that does work for now at least. That is their Wells brand pickup coils.
I know what some of you are saying, and I know, I know. Take a digital ohmmeter with you, test what they bring you and they should all read right at 846-855 ohms. Every one. Make sure they aren't physically cracked or damaged and measure them and go home with it if it passes.
I have not been able to install 1 pickup coil yet in the last year that dropped right in. Not 1. I don't even try anymore, I automatically re-align them all before installation. Why??? Well they won't be right if I don't. See, if any of the teeth come in contact with the pickup coil you got a problem. Most of these pickup coils are real close but as far as I'm concerned "close" only counts in Atomic bombs and hand grenades. So to be right they gotta be fixed. Not hard to do but tedious if you don't got the dowel tool to do it with. If you don't, you turn the reluctor till all 8 line up with all 8 on the coil and look at them. Magic marker the ones that are real close to touching and you'll see that you probably end up with 2 or 3 that have marks showing they need fixing. loosen the 3 screws that hold the thing together and favor the side that had the tightest clearance and make that side have more clearance by pushing the ring one way or the other. Retighten the screws and test fit it all again. Very time consuming to do but most all need it done.Why don't they come better aligned? Costs more money to make sure of all that nonsense is done right they say. Fixed 2 that had that exact same problem and several big name shops here in town worked on these guys cars and to no avail. Cars still had a dead miss in them. Carb guys going banannas trying to fix a prob that never existed in the carb to begin with cause thats where everyone said the prob had to be.
And yes, you can cheat on this. You can very lightly file the tips of the reluctor to gain clearance, BUT! BUT! BUT! I'll say it again, BUT, YOU WILL DECREASE THE SIGNAL STRENGTH OF THE DEAL BY DOING THIS, IF NOT DONE REAL CAREFULLY! It can be done, and successfully but I do not recommend doing it. I would rather see you properly align the pickup coil first.
So far the Wells pickup coils have been the most stable from coil to coil and the closest to being in alignment, as of today..SEPT 6, 2004. That way you don't have to go jacking with stuff you really don't want to or have the tools to work on anyway.
.018 sounds awful wide to one side to me.
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