The meter is set on the 2M ohm setting. The clips are connected to the spades in the disty. Am I testing this wrong? Haynes says 600 to 850 ohms. My car runs pretty decent, but with this kind of resistance it seems like it wouldn't work, so I suspect I am doing this wrong.

 

Try grounding it to the frame then the engine and compare to what you came up with.

On your meter, switch it to the 2k range, little readings (under 1k) aren't really accurate up there at 2M.

 

(2k range being 0-2000 ohms)

On your meter, switch it to the 2k range, little readings (under 1k) aren't really accurate up there at 2M.

 

(2k range being 0-2000 ohms)

 

+1 for changing your range.

 

GD

That's the lowest I could go without overranging. I should have included that in the original post. I connected the positive lead to the spade and grounded the negative to the distrubutor housing and got 19.6 at the 20k setting, which is still high. Thanks for the help so far.

Let me check the FSM....

 

GD

My FSM is extremely confusing on this subject. In the specifications section there is a line for "series resistance of pickup coil" - with an Ohm symbol. But in the data column there is only a reference to the models used "4WD: CIT-79, Other: K-31".... which is NOT an ohm value.

 

There is absolutely nothing in the distributor section, nor in the ignition troubleshooting section about either pickup coil. The troublshooting tests everything BUT the disty and then concludes it must be bad if it still doesn't work

 

However - the fact that it says "series resistance" makes me beleive you are testing it wrong. I'm pretty sure it has to remain connected to the coil while you test it - thus your testing with the coil removed is giving the wrong readings. At least that's my hypothesis from the data currently availible to me.

 

GD

So if I understand you correctly I need the pick-up coil connected to the ignition coil to test. I went out and pulled the female spade connectors in the disty up just enough so they were still connected and I could get my meter probes to touch the male spades. Five separate reading came back at 260 ohms, which still isn't spec if I'm doing it right and Haynes is right, but at least it's the right order of magnitude. I'll leave it at that for now, unless you have other suggestions. Thanks for the help GD.

I'll make a test of the Hitachi I have when I get a chance and report back to you.

 

Your discrepency may be due to the coil - is it original? If it's aftermarket or old there's a good chance the resistance isn't the same as it's supposed to be for OEM.

 

GD

I bought a new stock Hitachi ig. coil yesterday (Duralast brand). Started and idled fine, but I haven't driven with it. I tested it at the parts store 1.5 primary, 9.0k secondary. The primary was a little high, but they only had one in stock so I grabbed it. My car has been driving fine for the most part except the idle speed dropping low intermitently since I replaced the ND disty with the Hitachi. I replaced the wires connecting the pu coil to the ig. coil (reusing the original connectors) because I discovered several cracks in the insulation. No change. I thought I had it solved with the idle speed adjustments, but it's still doing it. I think it's my alternator actually. I've been planning the alt swap for a while among other things, but I think it moved to the top of the priority list. I would still like to hear what you find on your Hitachi. Thanks again.

With non-Subaru cars you measure the resistance of the pick up coil (I have no idea what Subaru suggests), typically the pick up coil has a value of 650-850 ohms, Ford, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Toyota, etc, etc. I have no idea what you should be looking for here as a value. My Haynes is silent and my '89 FSM has a different type of distributor (photo-electric), it does say that when there is a fault in the system it will throw an error code out of the computer. All I would assume is: no codes = good to go, no matter the value.

The meter is set on the 2M ohm setting. The clips are connected to the spades in the disty. Am I testing this wrong? Haynes says 600 to 850 ohms. My car runs pretty decent, but with this kind of resistance it seems like it wouldn't work, so I suspect I am doing this wrong.

 

 

No,That reading is meaningless.

You can`t test pickup coil resistance of your Hitachi disty as the coil is integral to the ignition module.

More informative to use your dwell fuction to check the pickup coil/module output signal at the ignition coil.Look for nice steady #s

Thanks naru, good information. I tested it this morning and it's nice and steady. I'll test again after a drive.