moparman

Car is a '96 Formula, M6. I noticed a ground that is not connected. I don't have a camera, so no pix. One end appears to be bolted to the head on the driver's side. It is in a bundle with three other wires. One wire is black, one is beige, the other is beige with a white stripe. It is located above and to the left of the coil. It's just dangling, and is long enough to reach the axle. Could this have something to do with the AIR pump replacement?

chevyrules85

does it bolt to the side of where the coil/icm bolts? sounds like the small strap that runs over to the frame, and could have been removed during the AIR replacement, but shouldnt need to

moparman

Fortunately Shoe has a pic that shows the ground strap. It does go to the same bolt as the coil/icm. Note in the top pic, the line that says "nut & stud" points to it. You can see it better in the second pic.

Is this ground necessary? And what does it connect to?

http://shbox.com/coil/coil.html

shoebox

The braided ground strap goes from the coil stud to the frame rail where there should be another ground wire (IIRC). It's in the area to the rear of the cruise control module. Yes, you want to have that on there.

moparman

Could that be the cause of the coil arcing problem I'm having?

Guest47904

Doubtful. Explain the problem better. If it's a spot on the insulation where it is sparking to the nearest metal, that is a common failure of the coil and should be replaced. BTW the coil is considered a normal tune up item and should be replaced regularly.

moparman

The original coil started arcing and of course caused a misfire. Replaced the coil and wire with a new ACDelco oem coil and wire about two weeks ago. Car ran fine for about 10 days, then a slight miss developed. Original coil was arcing so bad you could hear the snap and see the arc in the daylight. The new coil is also arcing but you can't hear it, or see it in the day, but can see it at night. It's random, not a steady arc, and comes from two different places on the coil. Unfortunately, if I shine a light on the places where the arcs appear to be, it washes out the arc, so I can't pinpoint exactly where the arcs come from. I'm thining they might be coming from the mounting bolts area. The misfire is not bad enough, yet, to set a misfire code. The old coil did set the P0300.

Guest47904

How old are the plugs and wires?

moparman

Plugs and wires were changed last summer. There may be 3 or 4 thousand miles on them. When I touch a spark checker to the wires, they flash perfectly, except when the coil arcs. It doesn't matter which wire, they all look good until the arc occurs. Same thing with the coil wire.

96LT1TX

That ground wire/strap may be arcing to the nearest metal too. If you haven't put that on I would suggest you do that before anything.

moparman

Thought I'd get around to giving the conclusion to this, as it might help someone else.

Repaired the ground strap, arcing continued. Car quit running and wouldn't start. Determined it was the ICM. Replaced the ICM and car would start and run, but with a bad miss, coil still arcing. Weather turned bad. Don't have a garage. Neighbor saw me messing under the hood and said bring it to his garage. Crawled under the car looking at the plug wires. Can't see any of them arcing. Started car up, and the SES came on. P0308 code. Back under the car with a flashlight and start looking at wire routing. The loom/bracket that goes behind the power steering pump had broken, and #8 was lying against the exhaust. IIRC, either #4 or #6 was also close enough to the exhaust to have a gray spot on it. Got a new loom/bracket and replaced all the wires on that side with some extras I had. Problem seems to be resolved. I had just replaced those wires a few months ago. It pays to look at the simple things first. I may not have needed to replace the coil, or the ICM if I had checked the wires more carefully.

Venomous360

Now you have spares, swap the old ones back on and hold on to the new ones incase something goes bad, or keep the new ones on and hold onto the old ones for the same reason. I was reading this and starting to think you had a OPTI problem but I guess you fingered it out. Good job