Is the coil supposed to electrocute me? (1 Viewer)

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Today I was having engine issues, the car started sputtering on me so thought it might be an electrical issue because I'm having issues with my vintage air and radio. Anyway, I parked the car on the side of the road and while the engine is still running, I opened up the engine hood and with one hand holding the hood open I touched the spark plug cable at the back of the coil with my other hand to see if I could wiggle in or something. As soon as I did I got electrocuted. Is that normal? I don't think I touched anything metal just the rubber wire, not sure I want to try doing it again to find out though.

coil.jpg
 
Yes. With "one hand holding the hood open" you created a path to ground through you.
 
damn it, was hoping
Yes. With "one hand holding the hood open" you created a path to ground through you.

aha, thought i might have a bad ground but guess that was me. do you know why my coil looks the way it does btw? all the coils on my other classic cars are the cylinder kind, what kind of coil is mine? (sorry if it sounds stupid just got the car 2days back)
 
damn it, was hoping


aha, thought i might have a bad ground but guess that was me. do you know why my coil looks the way it does btw? all the coils on my other classic cars are the cylinder kind, what kind of coil is mine? (sorry if it sounds stupid just got the car 2days back)

Not the stock coil; no idea who's it might be.
 
Is that a ferrous metal body on that coil? If so, I suspect you touched it while you also held the hood so you created an easy grounding path as @1911 pointed out. But that should only happen if your coil is failing (through its casing) iirc. Or a crack in the plug wire. Maybe that’s your running issue 🤷‍♂️.
 
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I'm planning to change the fuel filter tomorrow cuz read another thread where someone had same issue as me. If that doesn't solve the problem then will look at the coil although it should be new since the car just got completely rebuilt. I'm currently trying to figure out what kind of coil I have since haven't seen one like this before.
 
Similar thing happened to me quite some time back, where I had developed a misfire. I grabbed #3 plug wire to see if anything had changed. A coworker was with me and
I was touching the fender. After a bit I started to feel it shocking me. My dumb ass wouldn't let go of the wire so I was just going "ow ow ow ow ow" he was literally rolling on the floor laughing
 
The answer is no.

As others have noted, you completed the ground so you got shocked. Now you know that you have a failing coil wire. Time for a new set.
 
I just checked and it’s a Diamond PTM-063GT coil if anyone was curious.

1B5EE415-211B-4981-9DAB-FFF2ED706931.jpeg
 
Did you get shocked wiggling the spark plug coil wire? Or just touching the coil?

Either way, you should not get shocked by doing this. You have an insulation fault. The current decided it was better to flow through you than to the spark plug.

How old are the wires? The coil?
 
Electricity will ALWAYS seek the path of least resistance! Having been the recipient of a 40,000 volt coil jolt, it is a shocking experience. Lucky that the amps are extremely low. :)
 
/ditto\

My wife will never live it down!
 
The word is derived from "electro" and "execution" and came into use just before New York instituted the electric chair.

electrocute

ĭ-lĕk′trə-kyoo͞t″

transitive verb​

  1. To kill with electricity.
  2. To execute (a person sentenced to death) by means of electricity.
  3. To execute or put to death by electricity.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
 
Did you get shocked wiggling the spark plug coil wire? Or just touching the coil?

Either way, you should not get shocked by doing this. You have an insulation fault. The current decided it was better to flow through you than to the spark plug.

How old are the wires? The coil?


I wonder if it's because the Vintage Air AC is grounded at the bottom of the coil? My AC randomly shuts off while driving and I think because the ground should be going to the battery directly because that's what it says to do in the manual. Instead its grounding with the coil which I think might be causing issues.

ground.jpg
 
I wonder if it's because the Vintage Air AC is grounded at the bottom of the coil? My AC randomly shuts off while driving and I think because the ground should be going to the battery directly because that's what it says to do in the manual. Instead its grounding with the coil which I think might be causing issues.

View attachment 3008335
As long as it's a clean, solid ground the electricity doesn't care if it's at the battery or chassis. They're recommending going straight to the battery to eliminate potential troubleshooting phone calls and complaints from people who have a poor/no ground connection.
 
As long as it's a clean, solid ground the electricity doesn't care if it's at the battery or chassis. They're recommending going straight to , battery to eliminate potential troubleshooting phone calls and complaints from people who have a poor/no ground connection.
IMO, counting on a ground to a painted fender on a 40 year old truck, bolted to a frame with (typically) corroded fasteners, with a sketchy ground path back to the battery, should be reconsidered.
 
Well this morning I removed the Vintage Air ground cables from under the coil and connected them directly to the battery and my issue is still there.

Basically randomly my radio and vintage air AC would shut off and come back on. It's weird cuz my radio is connected to the battery directly and just the on/off wire is running to the Radio fuse in the fuse box. So something before the fuse box is telling it to turn off, I'm guessing maybe a fault ignition key or some ground issue?
 

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