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Exploding lucas sport coil

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Thanks for your input Mark, I will check and see if there are numbers on the sports coil that identify it as 6 or 12 volt. And yes, Anytime you mass produce anything there is bound to be some bad apples in the bunch! As i am finding out, I am not the only one with a exploding lucas sport coil. My Main question still remains! What defect caused this to happen from within the coil? I am sure the manufacture knows the reason. I am waiting to hear from moss and will post the result. Most likely, Just a defect and i will leave it at that for now.
 
Sounds like a defective coil. BTW, I hope they didn't use PCB's inside the coil (The gunk that exploded all over the engine bay)! How did you clean it all up?
 
It looked like a light oil that was sprayed all over my motor bay. It was dark in the evening so i used a flash light and a rag to clean the oil off everything. Im original 43 your old coil is now back in the healey and working great. Yes, A defective coil for sure! I have emailed moss no response! I will call them soon.
 
At the risk of annoying those of you who love Sports Coils, Norman Nock talked me out on one 8 years ago indicating some problems and no real need unless I wished to race. I replace the weak original with a Moss replacement he sold and I've never had any problems. He was vague as to what the problems were but indicated the price was higher on the Sports Coil. He is not here to answer what and why but I always followed his advice.
 
Norman knew Lucas inside and out.
 
Just a update, Moss contacted me and will replace the defective lucas sport coil with a (quote) better product! pertronix coil. or refund my money. They want to see the photos of the defective coil. And was happy to send the photo's. Hats off to moss! stand up company that backs up what they sell!
 
My Main question still remains! What defect caused this to happen from within the coil? I am sure the manufacture knows the reason.

Well the most likely problem would be a shorted turn in the coil"s windings.--Fwiw--Keoke
 
I just found my Lucas sport coil to be leaking--the coil wire was full of fluid and car wouldn't start. It looks to have deformed a bit--hot? Had never heard of a coil leaking exploding. It is paired to a Crane XR700, but with no external ballast, so I'm assuming its a ballasted coil (it still reads 3 ohms). Hmmm
 
drambuie said:
Maybe i will try a new crain or pertronex coil? Will they be compatible with my stock points setup?
Click to expand...
I will be using a Bosch blue coil that I got from Advanced Distributor when I start my new engine. Jeff recommends them as they are ceramic instead of oil. I have two distribitors...one Pertronix and the other one is stock with points. Some numbers on the box: 00012, 0 220 081 083 - 74U SKU-28851 11012. I have two old Sport Coils that have the coil wire ends melted. I don't know why I've kept them after 35 years??!!
 
Keoke said:
My Main question still remains! What defect caused this to happen from within the coil? I am sure the manufacture knows the reason.

Well the most likely problem would be a shorted turn in the coil"s windings.--Fwiw--Keoke
Click to expand...
Or even just that they filled it too full at the factory. The oil expands when it gets hot, and the coil definitely gets hot, which is why it's filled with oil. Once it blows a hole and loses some of the oil, then some of the windings are sticking out of the oil and don't get cooled ... things go downhill from there.

When my nearly-new Lucas Sports coil failed, it didn't leak, it just wouldn't fire the plugs when it was hot. So far, the Pertronix Flamethrower has held up much better.

BTW, note that not all Bosch "blue" coils are ceramic. You have to check the numbers. I'm sure that Jeff supplies the right ones, but other vendors may not be so careful.

Early Crane XR700s did not have shutdown circuitry in them, so if you left the key on and the shutter happened to be blocking the LED, the coil would get very hot. They revised the design some years ago, the ones with the LED on the box do shut down when the engine isn't running. Obviously I try not to leave the key on, but more than once I've been interrupted while doing some troubleshooting and forgot to turn off the key.
 
Keoke,

I used to work for a major utility in California and have seen the results of high voltage transformers failing in service. They will sometimes explode. The most remarkable one I've seen was caused by one of two things happening, according to the studies done afterwards: 1) the transformer had a close in fault 2 days prior to the explosion, which caused a shift in the high voltage windings, causing a minor short and resultant arc internal to the transformer. 2) the water coolers for the transformer had leaked into the oil, and that water bubble circulated to the high voltage section, where the loss of the insulating properties due to the water caused an arc. Once the arc is large enough it vaporizes the oil, which will expand very quickly, and it blew the top off the transformer. Either of these scenerios could be the cause of the coil failure in question, a shock to it or water intrusion, both during manufacturing and not apparent until it had gotten fully warm and operating.

Hope that helps....
 
Hello everyone! When i first started this topic last summer i really never received a in depth reason why this lucas coil exploded when i was driving. "Lotuswins" makes some very good points! I still think this new coils core was not wound properly at the factory! "look at the attached photo" As i stated in my early post, Moss motors contacted me about the problem and said it could be that the points where gaped to tight causing the coil to overheat.

I did check the point gap and found they where set at about .012 which is .004 less then spec at .016 however i really don't think having the point gap set .004 to small would be enough to explode a quality made coil since most point gaps get smaller after a few thousands miles and lose there sharp tune. I had only 500 miles on that coil!

My original Lucas coil weighs about 2 times more then the new Lucas sport coil... does the older lucas coils have a bigger core? More oil? The rep from Moss refers to it as a (bursting coil) After sending a picture of the damaged coil to Moss, they where kind enough to ship me a New lucas replacement. since then i adjusted the point gap to .016 .017 then rechecked the timing with my advanced timing light, installed the new lucas sport coil and had no issues since. When i suddenly lost power, It wasn't fun having a car riding up my bumper at 65 mph! attached is a photo of the bursting beast!austin healey aluminum radiator 058.jpgaustin healey aluminum radiator 058.jpg
 
I had problems with a fairly new Lucas Sport Coil. The car would load up at a stop light and run rough for a few seconds on acceleration on a not-that-hot 80 degree day. I went to great lengths to blame the gasoline, but eventually switched back to my spare Pertonix unballasted coil which has run fine ever since -- the better part of the last year.

IMHO there are still problems with the Lucas Sport Coils.
 
For a data/reference point, the original, stock Lucas coil in my BJ8 has 180K miles and is still firing strong, a couple of dents notwithstanding. Seems to me these 'sports coils' ain't all that sporting.
 
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