TECH: Ford Script 12V Coil for a Flathead

I know there are people that will convert the original 6V Ford coils to 12V, but they are a little spendy and I like to do things my own way.

I was looking at an original 42-48 6V coil.



I was just going to mount a "modern" 12v coil to the original bracket and be done. Then I started thinking...



...what am I going to find inside if I pry this cover off. Well, I found a gooey mess that I had to dig out.



But after I got it all cleaned out, there was a nice clean housing.



GMC Bubba had given me the tip here...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217079

...that the shortest 12V coil available was a 62-65 Ford. It turned out to be a pretty good fit, but still a little too long.



The new coil slid right into the old Ford coil housing...



...and I opened up the bottom for the coil to poke through.



But I still needed to lengthen the coil housing to cover the new coil. I gutted out a second Ford 6V coil and cut off a piece.



Just long enough to cover the 12V coil.



I beveled both pieces and epoxied them together with some Devcon 2-part.



Sanded that off smooth, primed and painted to try to match the old Ford brown like the second coil (some were brown, some were black)

I dig the little details like the Ford script on top.



And here it is in place on the almost completed engine...



I know this is a very specific application, but it just one more of those things that can get you to think about modifying other parts to make your project a little more "yours".

And this was just another example why I am still not even close to being done with my RPU... ;D

Neal

 

Bitchin'. That motor looks great too.

 

Cool tech. Really cool engine.

 

Thats just to cool! THANKS!

 

Wow. Very nice work and the engine is a work-of-art in itself!
You gonna connect dummy wires to the top posts?... or did you run wires from the old posts, inside the housing to the new coil?

Thanks for sharing your cool tech.

Malcolm

 

that motor is a work of art ! what head`s are those ?

 

Love the tech and that engine looks amazing! What's it going in?

 

Malcom...I am going to just run dummy wires to the top posts, pigtailed into teh wire loom.

Casey...heads were on an engine my dad got 30 years ago. Cast iron, no-name but with a similar fin pattern to an ORD.

tjm...thanks, it's going in a 32 rpu.

Neal

 

Beautiful!!!!

 

Neal. Excellent, as usual. Thanks for posting. Now I'm thinking two of those babies side by side for a Harman & Collins dual coil. Your attention to the little details is second to none. Looking at the engine photo I also noticed that it looks like you chromed the little slotted farings where the wires exit (cool cloth wires BTW) the wire looms. I never thought a stock Ford sparkplug wire loom could look so good.To me another unique detail. I'll probably steal that idea too!!!

I'll be checking with my buddy today to see if he can ID those heads. He has a huge flathead speed equipment collection including, last time I counted 40-50 pairs of heads---many cast iron. If he doesn't have a pair like yours I think he'll know what they are.

 

About 3 months ago on another forum, 10 people ripped me a new asshole because I suggested that it would be okay to mount a coil "upside down" as you have yours shown. They all said that coils should be only mounted with the hi tension lead pointed up, otherwise the cooling oil inside the coil would leak out around the crimped end of the case and cause premature coil failure. I'm not convinced that they were right, but it is something to consider. --By the way---nice work.---Brian

 

I hunted around on Clubhotrod untill I found the post where everybody wanted to shoot me because I said it didn't matter how a coil was mounted (Pointing up or pointing down). The outcome was as follows

1- not all coils can operate in any position. As a matter of fact most of them can't. To operate a coil upside down you need an epoxy filled coil. OIl filled ones usually tend to short if in the upside down position. (Sean found that out the hard way while he was holding it and hit the started ZAP!)

2- One trip to PAW later, I came hone with a brand new epoxy filled coil, mounted it and vavoom. Back in business. The finned cover mounted on firewall looks bitchin'! Actually my deuce right now is looking so darn good I can't beleive it. I was so unhappy with my paint job at first and now I love it - go figure... I just had to let go of my own concept and get used to seeing the new look .<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
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Clever thinking Neal.

You do some really nice stuff and this is an extra nice touch.


I don't want to highjack the thread, but what's the deal with 6V and 12V coils?

They're both transformers.

Is it simply the ratio of turns?

Doesn't seem 6 more volts would require an additional insulation factor.

 

Brian, no arguement here, but all VWs had there coils mounted with the wires pointing down. Cool tech too.

 

Neat job !! Now ya got me digging thru my parts again......

 

Great idea. Your attention to detail is amazing, that's gonna be a nice ride when your done.

 

Can't wait to see what ever this is going in, cause it's beautiful.

 

I went back and looked at the photo. The crimped end looks to be the bottom of the coil. If that is the reason for not running it upside down, should not be a problem.

Neal

 

A small fwiw - Ford Cleveland engines in pickups and I believe the larger passenger cars of the late 70's ran the coil horizontally.

Never heard of any problems with coil failure doing it this way.
Like was stated, Ford probably used a coil that wasn't sensitive to it's orientation.

 

All the short Ford coils I have seen are mounted on their sides. The Y blocks, the FE's the W's the heavy trucks, the only exceptions are the four bangers and the sixes.

 

beautiful!!!!

 

I have asked around on mounting coils upside down. Seems that there are plenty of them working just fine. The main problem seems to be with the coil leaking around the seems where the can is crimped to the "top". The coil I used is a plastic body with a glued seam at the bottom...plus it's original Ford application had it mounted on it's side. I'll see what happens.

Things like this seem to get as many opinions as answers...kinda like copper fuel lines. Your mileage may vary.



And another detail pic...



Neal

 

Neal:

Awesome idea. Love it. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Very nice!

 

We are not worthy!!
Mart.

 

Awesome looking Flathead! Nice work!

 

When I was prepping the looms for paint I found that the ferruls where brass, so I just polished and masked them.

Yea...let me know what he says.

I was pm'd for a couple more pics, but I thought I would add them here...







My dad was the reason for this build. He has been messing with and collecting flathead parts for 50+ years. I wanted to make sure some of his knowledge got passed along...so he was in charge of what went inside, I just made it look purdy on the outside. That's us smilin...



Neal

 

Great vision and workmanship...........Mike

 

Damn Neal....beautiful work. This motor deserves to be the centerfold in the HAMB calendar.

 

Yeah, those heads will be OK til you can get some nice new finned Edelbrocks. Too bad you couldn't find some 97's to replace those weird carbs.



(above comments were tongue-in-cheek to the sarcasm disadvantaged)