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Exploding lucas sport coil

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drambuie

drambuie

Jedi Warrior
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Last night i was driving my 67 bj8 down a dark country road at about 65 mph. Then suddenly i hear a loud pop! And i lost all power and coasted to the soft shoulder of the road. I opened the bonnet, And to my surprise i see the guts of my new lucas sports coil blown out of its housing and hanging by the wires with oil from the inside of the coil all over my generator and motor bay! The very first time i was ever stranded in any of my vintage brits! I happened to get stopped in front of a house in the country, As i was looking under the bonnet a gentleman came out of his house to help me push my healey off the road into his drive way. He told me he heard of a austin healey but never seen one! He loved it! He then offerd me a cold drink and a ride home to get my spare original coil. I gladly accepted his kind offer, After returning with my spare coil, I installed it in about 5 min and it fired right up! We both had a good laugh and i made a new friend in the process! God bless him! Ok, Now for my question! Clearly this is a defective lucas sport coil, Why else would it just Explode! I have ruled out heat from my motor, It runs at 160 to 170 all day at highway speeds. As i examined the blown out guts of the new lucas sports coil all the windings where intact with no broken soldered ends at all. My thinkng is something on the inner core of the coil went bad! Any thoughts as to why this would happen? Thanks for any input fellow Healeyist.
 
To tell you the truth, I am very good with mechanics, But when it comes to electric's im a little lost! My 67 healey bj8 is 100% original, All i did was add a new lucas sport coil when doing a complete tuneup. The coil had only 500 miles on it! Where would i look for the ballist resistor? Thanks for your reply elrey.
 
Did you perchance leave the key on with the engine off before this happened, what do the points look like?
 
No, I never leave the key on when the car is not running, I know it can make a coil very hot in doing so., My points are brand new! properly gapped and motor timed with a 15% advance using a built in advance timing light! The motor starts scary fast all the time! Better then my nissan morano!
 
After picking up both coils, My original lucas coil feels 2 to 3 times heavyer then my new lucas sports coil! Maybe they are cheaply made these days??? I don't know?
 
I expect the coil was defective as it was functioning properly for a time prior to self destruction. Also, since the car started and took you home without incident on your original coil, I do not think your problem was caused by a short or power surge.

I expect the Lucas Sports Coil, as the original, does not require a ballast resistor.

I would suggest you not over analyze this event and just get a replacement.

Good luck,
Ray (64BJ8P1)
 
Yes,I agree! I will ask for a replacement of a different brand! Maybe a Crain coil. I contacted moss to advise them of the problem and hazard they pose. I did a web search typing in expolding lucas sport coils and found a link talkng about the same problem with new lucas sport coils! It seems to be a on going problem but know one seems to know why!
 
I believe that quite a few of the members here use the Lucas sport coils with success.
 
Well, I guess they sent me a defective coil this time... I will run a new crain coil and get back with the lasting result. The new lucas sport coil i bought for my tr6 about 7 years ago works fine, But who knows how this recent batch was made these days? I hope this topic explodes like my new lucas sports coil so we can hopfully get to the bottom of this before someone gets hurt!
 
You can not manufacture any type device with out a portion of that production being defective.

Consequently just replace the coil with a new Lucas replacement and the problem should be resolved.

Those failures on the other websites do not oroperly reflect the probmen becasuse we could be using 10 Million coils and on;y 50 failed OK--Fwiw--Keoke
 
Sounds reasonable. Unfortunately mostly no returns on elec. parts, usually leading to once burned twice shy. Writing a letter to Moss may help.
 
Yes, I did email one of the moss reps that i have talked with before, I hope to get a response monday, I will post there response to this matter. This sunday i drove my healey for about 2 hours useing my original 44 year old coil with no problem at all. One postive thing is, I got around to packing common sense items in the boot that will be needed in case of a breakdown. Small local phone book, flash light ect.... Thanks everyone! Truly, This is a great site with great people and i am proud to be part of it!
 
There isn't any reason it would be any different than any other coil, unless it were defective.

Outside the possibility that you got a 6 volt coil by mistake (switched packaging, stocked incorrectly, etc.)

Original wiring did not include a ballast resistor and don't remember one being added later in Healey production.

And yes, the Lucas Sports Coil I've had for 30+ years never gave me any problems.

C Ya,
Mark
 
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