mg-mmm
[Top] [All Lists]

Coil theory

To: <mgt@autox.team.net>
Subject: Coil theory
From: "Lawrie@Britcars" <lawrie@britcars.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:17:50 -0700
Fellow listers - especially those of you who understand the ebb and flow of 
electrons....

I've always been led to believe that coil polarity is important.If the car 
is wired negative ground, the "minus" terminal on the coil should go to the 
distributor for maximum spark voltage to be generated. However, today I 
presented myself with a puzzle which may be totally erroneous or may, in 
fact, need some explanation:

If a coil was manufactured during the days when its intended cars were 
predominantly positive ground (example - a Lucas Sports Coil dated 1958), 
and has terminals marked "SW" and "CB" rather than "+" or "-", logically the 
"CB" terminal would be the "plus" terminal since the points take the current 
to a positive ground. Am I right so far? Or did Lucas make its Sports Coils 
to fit cars with either positive or negative ground?

Now, if one wanted to put this coil into a car wired negative ground, would 
the "CB" terminal still go to the distributor? If reversing the polarity of 
the car also requires reversing the terminals on the coil (something I was 
told a long time ago), have we in fact now wired the primary voltage to the 
secondary circuit in the coil when we connect the coil the other way around?

In short, are coils manufactured for particular polarity in a car and will 
their output voltage be reduced if they are wired backwards because the 
car's polarity has been reversed?

Any and all insights will be appreciated!

TIA,

Lawrie Alexander 

///  unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net  or try
///  http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
///  Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/mg-mmm

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>