[Healeys] hot coil

Bob Spidell bspidell at comcast.net
Sat Apr 25 10:01:10 MDT 2020


Slightly OT: What is the 'insulating oil?'  In large, power grid 
transformers, the insulating oil at one time was PCBs, a serious 
carcinogen.  A big deal was made about this decades ago, and I 
assume--yeah, I know what 'ass-U-me' means--that those were replaced, at 
least in newer versions (knowing PG&E, maybe not). I wonder if old, 
oil-filled coils, which are essentially transformers, still might have 
some PCBs in them, in which case they need to be treated with the 
necessary concern.  OTOH, although I've never deconstructed a Lucas 
coil, some coils I've seen the internals of used heavy, oily paper as 
the dielectric.

If you have a Pertronix (I) instead of points, and the distributor comes 
to rest with the power transistor in the forward-biased state I'd guess 
the Pertronix would fry first, though I've left my key in the run 
position longer than I should have a couple times and, although the coil 
got warm, the Pertronix survived.

Bob


On 4/25/2020 8:37 AM, John Harper wrote:
> Carl
>
> It depends on where the engine comes to rest. If contact breakers are 
> open then is nothing to heat the coil. Version made at about the end 
> of A-H production will heat up but should not burn up.
>
> One problem one might have is that a coil may be OK on test but after 
> a few miles will fail. This is possibly because the insulating oil has 
> leak out. This can happen very slowly and may not be noticed.
>
> Best regards
>
> On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 at 14:43, Carl Rubino <rubino at truespeed.ca 
> <mailto:rubino at truespeed.ca>> wrote:
>
>     How long can you have the ignition on  without starting before the
>     coil burns itself up.
>     -- 
>
> Best wishes
>
> John Harper
>
> AHC UK 100 Register Secretary
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/healeys/attachments/20200425/08b02dfe/attachment.htm>


More information about the Healeys mailing list