Morris Minor Owners Club

There I was, cleaning the contacts for the wiper motor while investigating a circuit problem that has caused the low ampage (green/white wires) fuse to blow when BANG! the coil ruptures.
What's the fluid in there and can it harm anything?

Wow, for a coil to boil and blow, it must have been live for a long time.
The coil has cooling oil inside, it wont harm anything, just prevent rust

Make sure you fit the correct coil. A lot of early coils that look like they will do the job, are 6V and run with a ballast resistor in the feed (Ford etc)

So make sure the coil is 12V and preferable the right Lucas part number or equivelant.

Cheers. That confirms another reply I've had by phone.

Aye - it's v bad for the coil to be left energised for any length of time, so don't leave the car standing with ignition switched on!

Possibly it was faulty anyway - so feel lucky it popped when you were stationary (and not when you pull out in front of a truck...)

At this time of year the coil shouldn't get that hot within a good 15 or 20 minutes. If the oil had been leaking then the windings will be poorly cooled and that is most likely part of the problem (if there's no air inside, it's not likely to go bang!)

Bizzarly the fracture was through the centre of one of the threaded terminals. It was quite a sight as it liberally coated the bonnet in a perfectly formed fountain of liquid.

Aye - it's v bad for the coil to be left energised for any length of time

Food for thought then. I will buy a new coil then and make sure it's mounted horizontally.

Now is the time to buy a Lucas Gold coil then ;)

They can be had for under 20 quid delivered on Evilbay, in fact I'm pretty sure the dealer I got mine from (Southern Spares or something like that) are based in/ near Southampton!

Well - if there was a 'fountain' it obviously wasn't short of oil!

Well - if there was a 'fountain' it obviously wasn't short of oil!

Guess not, but it was upright and the hole was only about 2mm across.