Dodge Repair: New coil: high tension wire arcing

Question
QUESTION: Hi Kevin,I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 Van 5.2 and put new coil in last year and just put in new plugs,cap rotor and wires that I bought from the dodge dealer. The coil wire was arching throught the wire loom against the valve cover so i used a piece of heater hose and put the wire in the hose and routed it away from metal and still get a shock from it.Replaced it with a new coil wire from dealer and still does the same thing. spark plug wires don't shock me but coil wire does. Is this normal.

ANSWER: Hi Glenn,
That is an interesting situation. One would believe that the coil wire would have sufficient insulation to foreclose that arcing. Possibly the voltage regulation of the alternator might be allowing more than about 14.4V is about the only thing I can think of a reason. That would proportionately raise the output voltage of the spark coil.
Sorry for the delay in responding but I just found your question in the 'pool' where Kevin had referred it.
Please read the PS below and respond to it.
Thanks,
Roland

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QUESTION: Thank You Roland for your answer. I just want to add that I tested the coil's primary and secondary leads with a ohm meter and got .002 on the primary and 12.50 on the secondary. A dodge mechanic told me it depends on the temperature of the coil? Last year when he tested the coil with a $10,000 scan tool it didn't say the coil was bad but I tested it with the ohm meter and the secondary wasn't putting anything out and that's why the van wouldn't start. So he put in a new coil.

Answer
Hi Glenn,
No doubt that your present coil is good. What I suggested is that you might check the voltage across the battery when the engine is running to see if it might be running high (which would cause the spark volt to be proportionately high also). Other than that I would not know what to suggest about arcing of the coil high voltage wire other than to attempt to route it away from metal surfaces on the way to the distributor.
Please read the PS below and respond to it, if these answers have been helpful to you.
Thanks,
Roland