Cadillac Repair: 89 caddy fleetwood low spark intensity, center electrode, center terminal

Question
My caddy quit running and won't start even on ether. Has gas spraying from injectors.  However when I checked the spark, it had a snap to it but appeared to be weak. What could be the problem??

Answer
Hi George,

        Weak spark can be caused by several items. Of course you know that the purpose of the ignition coil is to produce the spark. From there spark travels through the coil wire or a sparkplug type wire to the center terminal of the distributor cap. Or if the coil is mounted inside the cap it will sit above the center terminal. The rotor spring contact touches the center terminal inside the cap and has a small gap between the rotor tip and the sparkplug terminal of the cap. A sparkplug wire sends the spark to the plug and then the spark jumps the gap of the sparkplug allowing the fuel to ignite.

     So in answer to your question the coil could be bad, the coil wire or sparkplug wires can get high resistance over time or mileage, the distributor cap or rotor can have burned or arcing contacts or the plug itself will wear the center electrode such that the gap will get too large and the coil isn't able to create enough spark to jump the gap.

     My recomondation would be that if the Caddy has over 75,000 miles and has the original spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor then replace them and the engine might come to life. If the parts mentioned are less than 30,000 mile old then there is a good chance that the coil is getting weak.

     I hope that answers your question and let me know if I can be anymore help. Bill