Re: [ihc] gold box questions

["Allan Ericson" <lowvolt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mark stegmann" <truckdriver_1977@domain.elided>

>
> I'd agree. Our schout used to cut out & die, and then
> restart after a few minutes. Good thing it is a
> 4speed, as keeping it in gear, keeps the engine
> turning & the PS pump working, as it would always die
> when I was driving. It was a prestolite distributor,
> and dad said he thins the circuit board was cracked.
> New distributor, problem solved.
> Mark
>
I'm still having problems with this one.

The disty can fire the old gold box. Disty is good.
The old gold box can fire the plugs. Cap, rotor, wires, coil, and plugs are
good.

If the old gold box works well for a while and the new ones don't, the new
ones are most likely bad. They probably came from the same batch from the
factory.

All the gold box does is use a trigger from the distributor to generate a
pulse. The pulse fires the coil. The only reason a gold box is used is to
make the size of the pulse more uniform throughout the rpm range. (whole
different thread if you're interested) If a good pulse can fire the engine,
the only thing that could be wrong besides a bad gold box is a mismatched
coil that only works on the old gold box, because the pulse is a go-no go
scenario. If the trigger from the disty doesn't work, you get nothing. I
just can't buy into the "mismatched, only works with the old gold box"
theory.

The Holley distributor simply shorts the two wires from the gold box using a
magnetic switch, although the switch is very sensitive, and won't fire just
any electronic box. If the box is good, you can fire the coil simply by
momentarily shorting those two wires. The spark will be normal.