Coil gets HOT and engine cuts out. 1984 F250

There is also a possibility that the resistor wire is ng.
Detent/mechanical issues first.

I hear what you say about the pick up in the distributor,  but keep in mind, my emergency spark box/fake coil works fine.
The 10.5 - 12.5 volts at coil is going to be patched with a ballast resistor until I run down the line. If I can get it to 8 - 10 volts max, then when I fix it right it will hopefully show 6 - 8 volts, then I can take the bandaid out.
That is the plan.
I will of course post when rectified.  I think we have touched on all possible causes.
Thanks as usual.

It's Starliner who's determined that he gets 12V to the coil (unless he pulls the key back solidly to 'Run')

I think if he can solve that, the overheating issue will go away and the module will last.
I've seen bad pickups, and cracked magnets render the trigger part of a distributor inoperable.

An interesting thing to note if this happens again is if the tach starts acting weird at all before cutting straight to zero.

Starliner,
Have you taken your meter and ohmed from the coil power wire in the horseshoe to the two terminals of the DSII box power plug?

Do you get '0' on one terminal and 1.05-1.15 ohms on the other?

No, will do tomorrow

Q: I realize the radio noise capacitor has an obvious purpose,  but seeing that it goes to ground, is it an essential component? Could my eliminating it be adding to the overheating of the coil?
Also, about the resistor wire, does it run from the ignition switch all the way to the coil, or is some of the wire on the path regular wire?
I've looked at the schematic and I see it says R/LG.  I'm just wondering if someone might have bypassed or replaced the resistor wire with normal wire. I see that the harness has been wrapped in electrical tape.
I still have to do an ohms test, I just got side tracked dealing with a blown out wheel cylinder , and the stripped wheel lugs and nuts because someone didnt read the L on the lugnuts, (not me)!

The condenser is not essential.
It's only there to help eliminate EMI ringing from the coil.

I think I already said the resistor wire is a length of pink wire wrapped up in the dash harness.
It was pictured in another thread a week or so ago.

I can see if I can link that picture, but I've repeatedly told you how to use your ohm meter to assure yourself that it is there and working.

Oh well, here's the thread:   http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Pre-Emptive-FIRE-td58908.html

You have, and I will, sorry, I just got side tracked.
No excuse.
Will do today.
Thx.

Starliner wrote

Q: I realize the radio noise capacitor has an obvious purpose,  but seeing that it goes to ground, is it an essential component? Could my eliminating it be adding to the overheating of the coil?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F201304947432

Good find, Jim.

But in answer to the question, which I'd missed, the condensor/capacitor neither helps nor hurts the current draw.  (Yes, if you want to get technical it can smooth things out a bit, but the overall energy drawn is the same.)  So I don't think that has anything to do with the problem.  Leave it off for now and add one back if the radio needs it.

I need one too!
You saw how rusty mine is when I shared a pic of my distributor cap.

Trying to describe all the ways a capacitor can work (current limiting, smoothing, rectifying, etc) is beyond the scope of this forum, but not having one isn't going to harm the ignition.

If this was an EEC truck the EMRFI could cause it to act up because of what I describe as an 'electrical echo', but I don't think that's a problem with DSII

Yes, I'll certainly have one when I go EEC, if not DS-II.

By the way, I think the one you found is for a points system.  Sure looks familiar, with the open connector going under the screw.  My EEC coil takes one with a spade connector.  I have a couple, but they are like yours, rusty.

My DSII just has the little Y, but it's easy enough to change.

Thanks Jim, i ordered it.

BTW I tried doing ohms but my wires are all different colors so I did the right thing and ordered a FSM.
If I tested the correct wires/plug I got no resistance from one, 6 ohms on the other.
Notice the red from the coil goes to the 2 white wires, and the white wire goes to the red wire going to the ICM.

I'm just doing rear brakes and replacing the LH wheel studs my friend trashed. Everything came apart like a new truck!

Wow! Your buddy really did a number on those studs!
Good thing you chose to replace them.

Let me try to understand this.
You took the left hand side of that connector and probed each of those wire terminals with the other side of your meter connected to the red wire of the horseshoe coil connector (with it removed from the coil)

And you came up with six ohms on the resistive one?!?!
-I didn't say red or white, because as you can see they swap places at the connector- (this is normal)

I'm going back over there to finish the brakes.
The horseshoe WAS connected.
Will retest.

Take the plug apart, take the horseshoe off.

You're only testing the wiring between those two (three?) points of the harness.

Look at the EVTM page if you want to follow the maze in a picture.

Will do Jim thanks.

I hope you find that one of them shows full continuity and the other shows between 1.05 - 1.15 ohms.

That is a pretty wide margin, but it is what I have for a spec.

Then it's down to only your glitchy key return.
Which im pretty sure is the problem all along.

Well, from the power wire on the horseshoe, to the 2 wires that go to the DSII I am getting 6.7 ohms on one, (white to DSII), and .7 ohms from the other, (red on DSII).

To double check I put my 1.3 ohm bandaid resistor back in and got 8.5 and 2.7 respectively.
So something is up.
Thanks for the link to the service bulletins,  great stuff.

Well, something is definitely up.

If you add a resistor (in series) it should only add its ohms.
But your readings seem not to be in line with that at all.

Maybe clean your leads, or clean some of those connectors?
Because at this point I'm having my doubts.