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pgiro

D160 Won't Start

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pgiro

I was plowing with my D160 in our first snow of the season. After about 20 minutes it shutoff and won't start.

Looks like I have no spark. The PO I bought it from replaced the coil and points recently. Coil looks new and is a 166-0804.

I checked the ohms on the coil and the primary resistance looks good. The resistance on the secondary between the plug holes reads about 28k ohms.

(Manual says it should be 14,500-19,800 ohms) Does it look like I have a bad coil?

 

Thanks in advance.

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953 nut

Depending on the accuracy of your meter it may be OK. I would start by being sure there is 12 volts at the coil "+" and the points setting is proper, and all wires are well connected and not grounded. You can unhook the condenser wire for testing purposes, if it has spark without the condenser then it is bad.

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SylvanLakeWH

Start easy - check fuses. Blew one the other day - same thing happened...Dead...New fuse and tada!!!

 

:twocents-02cents:

Edited by SylvanLakeWH
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pacer

Coils are pretty reliable - Another possibility is at the points, they will/can get a 'glaze' between the contacts and you get nothing. I know its not recommended, but I (and I imagine many others) use a thin piece of fine sandpaper doubled (wet or dry is good) and pull it thru the gap a few times to get rid of that glaze.

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pgiro

Well I verified I have 12v to the coil. There are only 2 fuses and they are both OK.

Also ran a separate wire to the + of the coil. Tried cranking it with the condenser disconnected, no spark still.

Only thing I haven't tried is messing with the points but I don't know what else it could be other than coil or points but as I mentioned, they are both fairly new.

Any other troubleshooting ideas?

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953 nut
2 hours ago, pgiro said:

points but as I mentioned, they are both fairly new.

Even a new set of points can have a bit of corrosion on them preventing them from making a good ground contact when closed. Use some ultra fine sand paper (1200 or 600) to clean the points contacts. Check to see if you have spark.

It cleaning the points didn't fix it remove the wire from the coil that goes to your points. Ground one wire from your multi-meter and connect the other one to the wire from the points. with the points closed it should read as a dead short. Open the points and the meter should read open.

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pgiro

I did this test as you recommend. It worked as expected.

What else is left but the coil? Coil is basically new though.. Just checked the resistance again and it reads:

Primary 1.6 ohms and secondary 29.8k ohmss

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pgiro

I discovered something interesting while troubleshooting this. I notice when I turn the key to the run position (not running the starter) that the amp meter on the dash goes down at least 3 or 4 amps. This only happens when the points are closed. If I open the points I don't see the amp meter go down. To me, this indicates a short somewhere. Any advice on troubleshooting a short on the D160?   Thank you!

Edited by pgiro

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953 nut

When the key is in the run position you have current flowing through the ignition coil if the points are closed, which they are the majority of the time.

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pgiro

I understand that current will be flowing when the points are closed but I don't think the amp meter should drop several amps.

Another indication I found that leads me to believe I have a short is that at certain spots I'm only seeing 10.5 - 11 volts instead of 13v.

Also, the electric PTO, which worked intermittently but recently stopped working completely works perfectly if I run 12v from the battery directly to it. 

So the 10.5 - 11v reaching the PTO is not enough voltage to energize it.

 

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pfrederi

Amp meter will drop very noticeably if points are closed.

 

Have you cleaned your ground connections???

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pgiro
1 minute ago, pfrederi said:

Amp meter will drop very noticeably if points are closed.

 

Have you cleaned your ground connections???

Haven't cleaned the ground connection but I'll try that. Thanks.

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pfrederi

Take the negative lead off the battery and put one end of your multimeter on it.  The check the resistance reading to it from various points around the engine and frame.  should be near 0 resistance.

Edited by pfrederi
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953 nut

A bad terminal end on either the "+" or"-" cable or a bad spot in the cable itself could be the problem. Use a set of jumper cables in parallel with the battery cables and see if anything changes.

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R. L. Addison

Does this coil need an external resistor? Usually they will run without, but maybe not this time. It may say on the coil one way or the other.

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pgiro

I don't know if the coil needs an external resistor. The coil in it is fairly new and the number on it is 166-0804.

Does anyone know if this is the correct coil for a 1977 D160 with the Onan engine?

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pgiro

Well I've tried just about everything with no success so I guess I'm going to buy a new coil and see if that's the problem. Don't know what else I can try .

 

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pgiro

Well after patiently waiting for the new coil to arrive and finally getting a few minutes to install it, there is no change. No spark still.

I have tried just about everything and I'm at a loss as to what the problem could be.

Any other ideas? I would really like to get this thing running again..

 

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Desko

Check your plug wires my D160 did the same thing turned out the plug wires were shot put a new set on and it popped right off. 

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pgiro

Just to follow up on this and close this issue, I had put the new coil in and it still didn't start, so I gave up on it for a while. A few days later I checked all the wires and tried again and  it started right up. Maybe I didn't check to ensure that I had reattached all the wires when I first put the new coil in, not sure. At any rate, I'm glad that it's running again. Wish I new for sure that it was the coil but as long as it's running... Thanks for all who offered suggestions and help. 

 

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953 nut
1 hour ago, pgiro said:

it started right up.

:woohoo:

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