Coil Coil Coil ????
Another story from Bubbas Ignition ??After shipping 2700 of the Flathead Chevrolet conversions, i have a above average knowledge of them .Would like to share that story if i could .Quite a few years ago i had a friend that came to our hot rod shop with a problem with a 1950 Ford overheating, looking at the car it had zero ignition advance with a failed vac unit on the distributor (load a matic) . He had a magazine article from someone that had machined a Chevrolet unit to fit and wanted us to do it . So i dug out a old grimy delco . cleaned it up and took the parts next door to a machine shop (Tuck Jones) . Ran it on a tester with new Echlin Heavy Duty contacts and he installed it ! ( I think we charged him $135 ) .He returned after a week or so and says i need two more of these ??? Cooled the engine down and ran very good ! So i took three more to Tuck and he says “no way !! ” i don’t want to do these anymore in quantities of less that 10-12 units ??? So i dug up some more cores ponied up the parts and done 12 more wondering if i could ever sell 10 more ?? Well we did sell the other 10 and soon had orders for many many more !!! 2700 plus in 12 years !!!!Over the years making shipping that many units we experienced a few problems from time to time , I hired two friends Walt Hergenroether and Doug Stevenson to help me build these a few days a week, including my employees from Linder Fuel Injection and the hot rod shop !! Some days we could assemble and test 10-20 units (pictures later on) I found a core buyer and bought the delco cores sometimes 100 at a time and made Tuck the machine shop guy a happy camper !! Could write a book on just swap meets and buying cores as cheaply as possible. After shipping a few hundred one of the problem we found was that the customer ( you) would fry the contacts after just a few miles ( of course that’s my fault or so they thought ?) Under most examination they had simply installed the distributor using the wrong coil?
Had a customer walk in with a distributor out of a really high bucks 32 Ford ( Flathead ) .
Me : I can smell your problem from here ! ( cant see or hear shit but have a great since of smell)
Him: What do ya mean smell , ??
Me: After taking the cap off the unit see its smoked and burned up , wheres the coil ??
Him: Its on the car
Me: Well go get it , and lets test it out . I will repair the distributor while you are gone .
Him: Here’s the coil ( It was John Deere green)
Me: checking the coils resistance ( it was .2 ohms ) where did you get this ?
Him: My neighbor had it new in the box ( for his electronic ignition riding lawn mower)
Me : Handing him a 1.5 ohm coil saying you cant do that! Use this one , try this one. I didn’t charge him anything fully knowing he doesn’t understand! That was a few years ago but the story has happened many many times ( see it on the forums almost every week ) the latest being this week.
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My email : Jim i am having trouble with a distributor i bought from you . It has a terrible surge when i step n the gas and seem to be missing ??
Me: That could be a lot of things ? Did it used to run good?
Him : Yes and I installed a pertronix ignition ……
Me: What did you use for a coil ??
Him: I used the suggested one from pertronix, its the flame thrower that everyone uses ….
Me: Take that coil off , install the one i sent you and adjust the timing with a timing light as if will change when the module is changed ……. OK some logic here , the coil at .6 ohms would be 20 to 25 AMPS thru the module . Now pertronix is going to say they have current limiting in their modules and they do however the current limiting is adjusted at 8-8.5 amps and the module gets very squirrly at 20 amps !!! The igniter one will just have a heart attack and die (cheaper of the two available) and the igniter 2 will skip and miss some for a longer time but eventually fail as well . Customer don’t under stand and thinks hes doing good by buying the coil from the maker. AND his correct if they sell him the 1.5 ohm coil unit !!!!!Just another rant from Bubba on this very cold Friday day i the ignition shop !!!!!! ..
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