My wife's 240 ('83) is exhibiting some signs of a bad ignition coil. There is some lack of power, not starting as crisply, richer exhaust, maybe a slight backfire, poor running in rain/ wet weather and it did stall when brought to a stop twice the other day (rain).

It has a newish cap, rotor, wires, plugs, O2 sensor, filters etc, all correct parts. Fuel pumps are new and verified. No vacuum leaks I can detect. Timed correctly etc.

Anyway, I tested the coil and it is showing to be within specs. It measured 1.1 Ohms primary, 11400 Ohms secondary. So it is within specs. Does seem to be classic coil symptoms, and I don't really know where to look next. Any ideas?

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Then there is the coils for sale.

Ipd lists a Bosch 0221122345

FCP lists a Bosch 0221122006

Autohausaz lists a Bosch 00059 (0221122345) and specifies a "white distributor cap".
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Ok, so the coil on the car presently is the 345. My understanding is that the 006 coil is for cars with a ballast resistor (breakerless)

and

that the 345 is for the Volvo/Chrysler (electronic) ignition.

Does the cap color even matter for the coil?

If I don't find anything else wrong right now, I will be purchasing a new coil. Would appreciate if someone could clarify my coil controversy.

 

The VADIS parts catalog thinks you could have Volvo PN 1219230 (Bosch 0 221 122 006) or 1306058 (replaced 1336137-3, Chrysler 1306696-4), or 1336137 (Bosch 0 221 122 345), at least assuming you have a B21F engine.

the chrysler ignition has the ICU on the inside of the fender behind the right headlight, with a vacuum fitting at the bottom front edge. afaik, you can use Bosch coils with those. there's a pile of different distributors they used, I'm not even going to get into it. the chrysler distributors, AFAIK, do NOT have vacuum advance, that was handled by the ICU.

 

It's a 2.3L. That's where it is kind of confusing. Volvo kept the 2.1 as the turbo engine through the run. FCP doesn't really discretely identify between engines and although they also sell the 00059 (345), they don't list it as compatible for '83 and '84.

I guess I am just trying to find out if the white distributor cap (Chrysler) and the red cap (Bosch) for the range use the same coil as they are both the Chrysler/ Volvo ignition system because some sites designate the (345) coil as a white cap only?

 

FWIW, my 87 240 has a Chrysler ICU but a orange cap bosch distributor. :-/

according to the VADIS parts catalog for an 83, chrysler uses a differnet coil than bosch. how different, I dunno.

 

I think all LH series cars have the Chrysler ICU, Just some early on had a Chrysler distributor and cap, the screw- down one. It's looking like I'll get the 345
coil.

Can a coil produce driveability issues if it is in spec? I know they generally don't fail, just haven't been able to come up with another suspect.

 

I dunno, I've had bad coils in the past, mostly on old volkswagens. don't think I've replaced a coil on a 240/740/940 in 40+ car*years of volvo ownership.

I think I'd put a clamp-on timing light on the main coil-cap wire, and see if the strobe is even or stuttering/weak. if thats smooth and strong, I doubt you have an ignition problem. if its stuttering, then time to investigate why (cap, rotor, wires, plugs). 12V LED test light on coil pin 1, same thing, is it steady flashing with RPM or is it stuttering? if its stuttering, time to check the ICU, hall sensor, etc. if its steady, but the coil HV wire isn't yet the cap/rotor/wires/plug are good, THEN you have a possible coil problem,


does the 83 have points, or some sort of hall effect breakless timing ?

 

Those are really good ideas, thanks. The '83 is a hall effect sender. I don't think 240's came with a points distributor unless the '75 did (at least here in the States). My '76 has a reluctor distributor and those are a 2 wire connector instead of three like on a hall unit.

 

Update: It has become clear to me that the 0221122006 coil superseded to (00030) is the right one for 2.1L K-jet cars and the 0221122345 superseded to(00059) is correct for B23 LH cars. The 00030 needs the ballast resistor to step down the voltage. If the 00030 is run on an LH car, it will burst the coil.

I did test mine and although the LED was conclusive for even pulses, I could not tell on the HT wire due to my timing light being weak and diffuse generally. I will borrow one and see about that.