Failing Coils

[johncannon]

I have recently been through two new coils on my car -I bought the gold type to get optimum performance but they have both failed. Are these not suitable ?(they are sold for 60's mini's).

My old 30 year old coil keeps soldering on but I am worried it will fail soon leavin gme know back up.

Am i dooing something wrong?

John

[d_harris]

Are they ballast coils? are they correctly mounted (I believe that some must be verticly mounted)

[johncannon]

Someone else suggested moving its mounting to vertical when the first one failed in France on MOT this year. Have they changed the spec?

[bigginger]

AFAIK, if you've got one that needs to be mounted vertically, it's strictly speaking the wrong one. It needs to be vertical so that the cooling oil inside actually covers the electrics. The original one contained enough oil to do that when horizontal.

[d_harris]

That was my understanding of it too. However those coils will work perfectly well I believe (i've never had a coil go though, so I don't really know!)

[bigginger]

Agreed - they do, when vertical.

[Alec]

Hello John,

if you are talking about the Lucas 'Sports coil' then I've had one on my car for several years with no problem, mounted vertically however.

Alec

[minor_hickup]

Most of the 'oil filled' coils are not completely oil filled so do not like to be mounted horizontally. My new coil started playing up after a few months, so i filled it more than it had been and mounted it vertically in the wing. No problems now.

[Kevin]

so i filled it more than it had been and mounted it vertically in the wing. No problems now.

I didnt know that you could top the oil up in a coil, something else learnt.

[Alec]

Hello MH,

apart from how you fill a sealed coil, where do you get a small quantity of insulating oil?

Alec

[rayofleamington]

apart from how you fill a sealed coil, where do you get a small quantity of insulating oil?

on the ones I've topped up (via a screw hidden under the HT lead connector) I've just used mineral oil. with my limited experience of coils and solenoids, the oil will be a heat sink, not an insulator.

[minor_hickup]

Ray thats what I did, removed the screw inder the main HT. It has a sealing rubber plug on it. I tipped a bit out and it seemed like normal mineral oil, no funny smells or colours so I just topped it up with 20W50 by filling up the cavity for the main HT with oil, pushing it down with the rubber bung on a small screwdriver and letting the air bubble up.

[Alec]

Hello Ray,

20 to 30 Kilovolts in a coil?

Alec

[Kevin]

I have just recieved a reply from the States from the main supplier of coils to Aldon and they state that their flamethrower coils can be mounted horizontally or vertically and the only rare issue is with oil seepage and they said this had happend only twice in the last few years so it is quite a rare issue, maybe their coils are made to a higher spec than ours.

[alex_holden]

their flamethrower coils

Coils that throw flames? Is it just me or does that brand sound like the kind of product you would want to avoid?

[ColinP]

Alex:-

Coils that throw flames? Is it just me or does that brand sound like the kind of product you would want to avoid?

Nononono ... Gimmee!

One on each wing, 2 on the front grill & a couple in the boot (VW models - of course).

Now let the Beemers try & cut me up!


Colin

p.s. seriously, I don't think that engine oil is going to be much different from transformer oil (insulating proerties might be better if you used oil without additives - certainly don't use old engine oil)

[bigginger]

It's not there to insulate, it's there as a heat sink

[minor_hickup]

OO flamethrower coils! I've heard good things about these, never on a morris. I know they also do an epoxy filled version that can be mounted in any position but its quite expensive.