roy its never the coil

[dalebrignall]

here is a tale of woe ,we treated my girlfriends morris to a new coil and all the ignition bits. i got the coil from a local motor factors and after 200 miles it failed leavinf my girlfriend stranded ,so i changed it for a beaten up one i had in my traveller and it fired up straight away ,just goes to show shiny new is not always best ,i wont be getting any more bits made by intermotor

[Bazzalucas]

Is that Roy's last name? "Itsneverthecoil'? What is that, Gaelic?

[dalebrignall]

i think he will like the joke

[chrisryder]

i've told him an identical story to yours dale.

his response was 'it's never the coil, unless you've just bought a new one'.

[dp]

Given the questionable quality of new Minor coils and rarity of NOS Minor coils, are there any suitable coils out there made for other makes of car by more reliable manufacturers?

Same goes for points and condensor?

[autolycus]

Dale: are you sure they sold you the correct coil? Do you know the intermotor part number?

The reason I ask is that there are far more coils around to suit systems with ballast resistors than the straightforward systems that Morrises have. Having myself been caught by a coil sold to me as a new coil for non-ballasted systems, which turned out to be the other sort, I'd now never fit a coil without checking its resistance (across its two low-voltage connections, labelled + and -). Anything less than about 3.2 ohms, and it will overheat, its HT insulation may break down, and it may cause further insulation breakdown elsewhere if you have a duff or widely-gapped plug.

Or it may be just lousy quality, like most repro spares. Whoever thought, 30 years ago, that we'd come to revere Lucas as paragons of virtue?

Kevin

[chrisryder]

you can get accuspark and 'flamethrower' coils, i've had no experience of either, but i'd imagine the quality might be better, but the cost would be higher. i saw Mr Accuspark at the Stoneleigh restoration show, and he had lots of coils for all classics. I didn't look at prices though... perhaps I should have done, barely a week later and i had to change my (barely a year old) Lucas Sports coil as it was leaking!

[dalebrignall]

hi chris i have a spare standard coil that i got from bull motiff that im going to put in the boot just in case,i have one of thease on my traveller and its been fine ,i dont know what the local garage fitted to hazels car so im playing it safe off to bristol in it tomorrow wish me luck i wont need it ,it runs really niceley .

[chrisryder]

good luck!

[bmcecosse]

Thanks for the story - re that 'spare' coil - fit it to the car and use it, keeping the 'well kent' old coil as your reliable spare. And yes - a Mini 9 volt ballast coil will just about last 200 miles running on 14 volts !

[brucek]

Mmm - reminds of an experience back in the day.... Young and inexperienced and coming home from MOT89 I had fitted an Intermotor coil to my convertible and had no idea that there were ballast resist coils around (or even what that would have meant if I had known). Managed to get all the way to La Colle sur Loupe - tootled around SE France for 10 days but on the way back, after about 350 miles and having just passed through Lyon in a thunderstorm, and just as I was thinking its been a great run - boom - oily smell coming from engine bay - pull over to find the contents of new coil liberally distributed around the engine bay!

I managed to get a recovery off the motorway but trying to explain to the local gendarme that I needed a coil got me some very strange looks indeed! I think I asked for une bobbin pour l'allumage which just seemed to make things worse! In the end I was towed to a Citroen garage and the proprietor gave me a coil from some unknown Citroen - didn't want any money for it. Top bloke! It stayed on the car for about 4 years after that

As the thread says - it's never the coil so avoid the shiny bling and keep it old

[bmcecosse]

Bobine d'allumage would seem to be the better translation........

[brucek]

There was a good reason why I failed O level French!! I learned how ask for an appointment with the vet to treat my sick budgerigar but the oral exam situation role plays didn't extend to broken down Minors on the French motorway when the inept meddler (me) removed a perfectly good coil cos he liked the shiny looking new one - doh

[dalebrignall]

i got to where i wanted to go the car did 130 miles at 60 to 70 mph did not miss a beat .

[bmcecosse]

Exactly as it should be - these are reliable wee cars.