Classic Car Ignition Explained

The high tension part of the system, then is the center contact of the coil here. And the center contact sends out the voltage that will make the spark, along this wire here. This is the ignition King lead, and that comes into the distributor cap, and it comes through this sprung carbon contact, in the center there. So I always check that that's still in place. When you have a look inside a cap, it goes from there it passes into the rotor here, and it travels through the solar resistor, which is in brown there. And that's a radio suppressor. So this outer contact and as a distributor turns, the electricity goes from this outer contact into one of the segments, inside the cap, as the thing turns it lines up with the right segments, which means that the voltage goes to the right spot plug at the right time.