Comments on: Atomic 4 Problems… http://www.weliveonaboat.com/2007/07/atomic-4-problems.html Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:38:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anonymous http://www.weliveonaboat.com/2007/07/atomic-4-problems.html/comment-page-1#comment-117 Anonymous Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:09:00 +0000 http://www.weliveonaboat.com/index.php/2007/07/atomic-4-problems.html#comment-117 For the cost of plugs, who cares what went wrong? just buy 4 new ones, and you should be good for another 9 years.<br/><br/>But, since you asked... A few common, but not too noticeable things can cause plugs to fail: Cracked Ceramic Insulator (somewhere in the body of the plug), Gap too wide, Carbon Fouling. <br/><br/>Least likely: You mention that you can't see any carbon between the cathode, and annode, but it is possible to have a carbon trail down the insulator on the plug. To test, take an Exacto knife, and scrape the insulator all the way around the center electrode. <br/><br/>More Likely: get an Ohm meter (if I remember correctly, you are a technical kind of guy, so you have one) and test from the terminal on the top of the plug to the center electrode. This should be low (<20) Ohms. It is likely that there is (was?) a resistor in the plug, and it may have smoked giving you infinite Ohms.<br/><br/>Less Likely: if this still seems OK, check from the terminal to the grounded body of the plug. This should be infinite Ohms. If you are getting something less, then there is a short somwhere in the plug.<br/><br/>A good picture of a Plug can be found here: http://www.infovisual.info/05/012_en.html<br/><br/>Best of luck, and keep the blog going!<br/><br/>Ed For the cost of plugs, who cares what went wrong? just buy 4 new ones, and you should be good for another 9 years.

But, since you asked… A few common, but not too noticeable things can cause plugs to fail: Cracked Ceramic Insulator (somewhere in the body of the plug), Gap too wide, Carbon Fouling.

Least likely: You mention that you can’t see any carbon between the cathode, and annode, but it is possible to have a carbon trail down the insulator on the plug. To test, take an Exacto knife, and scrape the insulator all the way around the center electrode.

More Likely: get an Ohm meter (if I remember correctly, you are a technical kind of guy, so you have one) and test from the terminal on the top of the plug to the center electrode. This should be low (<20) Ohms. It is likely that there is (was?) a resistor in the plug, and it may have smoked giving you infinite Ohms.

Less Likely: if this still seems OK, check from the terminal to the grounded body of the plug. This should be infinite Ohms. If you are getting something less, then there is a short somwhere in the plug.

A good picture of a Plug can be found here: http://www.infovisual.info/05/012_en.html

Best of luck, and keep the blog going!

Ed

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