Ford Wasted Spark Coil Packs
From M-Tech Automotive
A typical wasted spark Ford coil pack can eb seen to the right. Its outputs are paired, such that cylinders 1 & 4 and 2 & 3 fire at the same time, with one of the sparks occuring to ignite the fuel mixture, the other sparking in the inert exhaust gas, hence the term 'wasted-spark'.
The centre black wire of the plug is a 12V ignition switched feed. The outer wire on the left which aligns with towers 1&4 is what we would coil 'Coil A' and the wire on the right that aligns with towers 2&3 is what we would call 'Coil B'. It is important to get these wired correctly or the engine will fire 180 degrees out of phase, which can cause damage, and will certianly not allow the engine to run. We only make this clear as we have seen it happen on cars which customers have been adamant that their wiring was OK, but after bringing the car to us we find this simply mistake.
