Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I try to carry spare parts when touring or going to Packard Club. I suspect my coil may be weak but don't know what to do about the armored wire on the back of the coil which I think goes to the ignition. N.O.S. ones are available for the price of your first born. There are six volt coils that are just as strong and not that 40 plus years old. Could you splice that wire in the back of the original to the terminal on the front of the newer replacement or just run a wire to a ground and leaver the other disconnected? Thanks

I'm with you on not being too confident with longevity of old NOS coils. If you get a modern coil with both terminals in the front you need to run the wire in the armored cable to one of the terminals on the new coil. If the car is still the stock positive ground it would go to the negative terminal. The other or positive terminal on the coil goes to the distributor. The universal Napa IC-7 coil or equivalent should function very well but as you said it is different.

There is no good solution to properly mount the armored cup to a modern coil and connect the wire to the coil short of some kind of adapter. A universal bracket is easily found to hold the coil to the engine but nothing for the armored cable and cup. You can splice on a short piece of wire if the original wire is not long enough to reach the front terminals or, if the entire armored cable is long enough you should be able to pull enough slack to directly connect the wire and tie wrap the armored cable and cup to the side of the coil body to hold things in position and relieve any stress or pulling. IMO, not a very attractive option.

I made an adapter to substitute a modern IC-7 for a Clipper coil which is very expensive and mounts thru the firewall. Since the conventional bodies use a different arrangement I can't suggest anything for sure to be able to bolt on a $20 modern coil. Have a couple of ideas but have not had direct access to an old conventional body coil and cup to see it either idea would work. The fact that Delco and Auto-lite has different cups and mounting methods makes it harder.

If anyone wants to try their hand making something for conventional body coils here is what I did to replace what I think was an Auto-lite coil on a Clipper with an IC-7. The new coil just slides in the adapter and a short piece of wire makes the connection from the base area which holds the old cup inside the car to the new engine side terminal. The original coil uses bent over tabs to hold the cup flush to the coil base so the adapter now holds the cup.

The other brand coil has a completely different cup mounting method. Rather than mounting flush to the base with bent over tabs, the other cup twists on and the cup surrounds the end of the coil.

Attach file:

---

  (122.91 KB)

There is nothing dear about that coil. replacement autolite CE-3224 JS coils are a fifty dollar item. you can either struggle to unweld the original bracket from your dead/dying coil, or buy a replacement bracket for about the same money.

I have both should you wish to burn a Franklin.

DAF

The brackets that allow you to mount a std coil to the firewall are sold on ebay for about $20. You still need to run a wire from the armored cable to the front of the new coil.

Quote:

Yes I have one and was not impressed with no provision for the routing needed for the wire and no way to secure the armored cable which is why I built my version. I believe conventional body cars have the coil mounted on the engine so they need another solution.

Thanks Howard, it may not be pretty but I am going to do the napa unit and splice that wire to the front. It is on the block and not on the firewall. I keep my cars as original as possible but they are primarily drivers and not trailer cars or show queens. Tommy

Which coil setup do you have? Does the cup mount with bent over tabs or does it twist on?

If someone has an old junk twist on type coil I would be interested in acquiring one to see if something could be made to hold and mount a modern coil to the block with a cup support along the lines I did with the firewall mount. The tab type would be easy as it would just be a version of the firewall mount already figured out but without the flat mounting plate. Holding the twist on type cup is a different challenge but maybe just a different end treatment would do the trick.

Here is the Clipper version of the tab type coil and the two different style cups I am aware of. Except for the way the armored cable exits the cup, unless there is a different diameter on conventional body coils I expect the cups would be similar.

Attach file:

---

  (116.94 KB)


  (132.11 KB)