oil coil

wingski

wingski

Senior Member
I just checked out the Mallory coil that was causing problems on my A. It checked out bad, and all of a sudden I remembered something. This Mallory coil is oil filled, and years ago, I was told to mount all oil filled coils upside-down with the distributer lead at the top instead of the bottom. That coil was mounted on my A with the distibuter lead pointed down like normal. I noticed a tiny bit of oil around the bottom 12v input lead and wonder if that Mallory had leaked enough over the years to expose some of the windings.

I’d appreciate your opinions about what is the correct way to mount an oil filled coil. What is the advantage of an oil filled coil over a standard coil? What are the reasons for any coil to go bad?

Thanks,

Mike
 
You're right, an oil coil should be mounted with the secondary lead pointing skyward.

I don't know what you mean by 'standard' coil. The vast majority of old coils are oil filled for cooling. Very early coils were tar filled and now most are epoxy filled.
 
When you mount a oil filled coil pointed up the original coil wire is to short. Where are you getting a longer coil wire? Is it just a spark plug wire? With the coil electrical connectors.
Thanks
 
A friend stuck an unknown coil on his 12 Volt Dodge & it RAN. Next day it went BOOM & died. It was an OIL filled 6 Volt & exploded, with COPPER Fuzz & Oil, everywhere.
Bill Laffing
 
On can buy spark plug wires and tips from Restoration Supply, with the copper internal wire, not carbon, etc. Some solder the tips to the wire ends..
Some folks also say that oil filled cool better than epoxy especially with internal resistors.
12volt oil filled are available on line, etc. but none are supposedly being made in the USA any longer due to environmental restrictions.
We find old tar filled coils at junk yards and test them for resistance across the terminals and from the center terminal to one of the side terminals.
 
This is very interesting. According to you, and oil-filled coil should be mounted with the lead pointed up. That makes perfect sense because then there are no terminals pointed down, and no possible points of leakage pointed down.

Why haven’t I ever seen a round coil mounted with the lead pointed up? I’m afraid that after all these years of seeing them pointed down, seeing one with the lead pointed up would be really weird. So weird that I think it would drive me nuts everytime I saw one mounted that way. And all that extra lead wire would really look crappy.

BTW. Spark plug wire or leads and coil to distributor wire or leads are the same. Also, all plug and distributor leads with copper wire instead of carbon fiber should always have the ends soldered on. The solder makes a three piece unit (wire and two ends) into a one piece unit. So, solder those ends over the bent over copper wire and eliminate the chance of sparking and the burning up of those leads. It also eliminates the chance of misfiring due to bad plug wires or leads.

Mike
 
Sidenote: I ran Minerva on carbon resistor secondary wiring, just because everyone said it WOULDN'T WORK. She ran FINE & didn't static up my OLD Transistor Radio, with 2 weather stations, even--LOL
Bill Musicfan
 
Why haven’t I ever seen a round coil mounted with the lead pointed up?
end quote


Oil filled Round coils from the 40s thru the 80s were mounted with tower pointed skyward.

Decades ago as a youngster I made the mistake replacing a coil on a VW and mounted a round oil coil upside down. That came back to bite me. I didn't realize at the time there was a difference and that VW coils were solid filled.
 
Someone mentioned that there were NO U.S.A. made, oil filled coils. "Maybe" they used that TOXIC Oil, used in Power Line Transformers???---It has some "special" qualities & is dangerous to handle. It would probably ROT your FINGERS OFF!!! And your nickname could be "STUBBY"---NLOL
Bill WARNING
 
BILL WILLIAMSON said:
Someone mentioned that there were NO U.S.A. made, oil filled coils. "Maybe" they used that TOXIC Oil, used in Power Line Transformers???---It has some "special" qualities & is dangerous to handle. It would probably ROT your FINGERS OFF!!! And your nickname could be "STUBBY"---NLOL
Bill WARNING
Click to expand...

Yes, the oil in old coils was similar to the stuff used in powerline transformers. It had polychlorobiphenyl's in it.
It would not rot your fingers off but if you drank it, you would suffer from deadness eventually.
 
For guys in NSW Australia, the brake testing machine that the yearly inspections require do not like solid core wires.

I got no idea what it does to the dude in the next lane's radio .....
 
pooch said:
For guys in NSW Australia, the brake testing machine that the yearly inspections require do not like solid core wires.

I got no idea what it does to the dude in the next lane's radio .....
Click to expand...

Don't like solid core wires!!!! How about exposed brass strips?:eek:
 
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