bountyhunter wrote: Pretty good overview of ignition theory.
www.jetav8r.com/Vision/Ignition/CDI.html
This is the part that always makes me laugh:
Automotive COIL (also called an "INDUCTOR")
An iron core is wrapped with 2 long "coils" of wire. The "PRIMARY" winding on the outside and the longer "SECONDARY" winding on the inside.
An inductor with two windings is called a transformer.... an inductor has only one winding. But, it's still (incorrectly) called a coil and probably always will be.