The Dark Wob

I have always found Bosch blue coils to be highly adaptive to living in the often stupid locations and angles used by BMC. They are the only ones that never failed on my Farina.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:49 pm I have always found Bosch blue coils to be highly adaptive to living in the often stupid locations and angles used by BMC. They are the only ones that never failed on my Farina.

But that would not be British!

Hooli wrote: ↑Sat Jul 06, 2019 9:47 am I'd agree with your diagnostics. I had a coil that was always wet with oil at the top where the plastic section was, after a few months it started doing the same thing.

And that is what happened here. I removed it and my hands got oil on them. What little remained found its way out through my 'repair'.


It would probably work fine again if I could refill it with electrical oil, but I think I'll consign this one to the black museum. Some time after fitting this, another Runbaken Oilcoil turned up. This is a later one and was the updated version for the 1970's as it can be mounted in any position. The earlier original Oilcoils could only be mounted upright, which really is the preferred position. But the coil bracket fastening studs are on the crankcase and I'm reluctant to modify the position.


This was where I started to have one of 'those days'. After removing the defective coil, I forgot to fit the new smaller acorn nut to the king lead before splaying out the wires, then I dropped the acorn nut into the abyss, where, you guessed it:


So I had to fish it out and clean it up. It's a wonder I didn't drop the glass coil too, access is very awkward without removing the battery and tray first. But I got it in and remembered to reverse the L.T. connections for Negative earth, then tried it with the king lead removed and held a half-inch from ground, and it displayed a good blue-white spark. When diagnosing the breakdown I used the same procedure and the spark was orange; it just wasn't powerful enough to ignite the mixture.


This should be a complete cure now, we shall see how it behaves on a hot day, but these are the best ignition coils available I've used before with complete reliability and I don't foresee any problems. That last holed one was always a gamble.

fried onions wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 8:51 pm

mercrocker wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:49 pm I have always found Bosch blue coils to be highly adaptive to living in the often stupid locations and angles used by BMC. They are the only ones that never failed on my Farina.

But that would not be British!

Very true. However, my very British Grandfather swore by the Cinturatos on his P6. Got to admit those Runbakens are works of art, though.

Tractor news. Thankyou Crooner, Dodge Rover and Drum. The carb was incredibly simple and after blowing through the jets and freeing a sticking float valve, then setting up the choke mechanism properly, it shed petrol no more. It was still being a difficult old sod though because there wasn't even a cough from the engine despite I could see our new cardboard manifold gasket getting wet with it. I checked the ignition system again and a short time later it burst into life and ran without stopping as it was prone to before.

However, we were still having problems getting it to rev up no matter how far the throttle was opened. We just concentrated on getting it going with petrol. Anyway, it soon became apparent this was the least of our worries.


When we started weeks ago too the oil actually looked like oil and was at the correct mark on the dipstick...


Not like this and overflowing. We filled the radiator up and water is pissing out of somewhere, and the level very quickly went down, there is obviously a major internal fault letting water into the sump, in short it's fucked!

This didn't stop us from taking the next logical step of forward and reverse movement though. With it cutting out again and the exhaust pipe resembling a Roman candle and howitzer, we called it quits, but the owner now wants us to move it to a different position, so the fun hasn't quite finished.

With the Humber I replaced the internal windscreen surround and did a little detailing on the chrome screws, taking the tarnishing off with very fine wet or dry paper.

fried onions wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2019 7:06 pm

With the Humber I replaced the internal windscreen surround and did a little detailing on the chrome screws, taking the tarnishing off with very fine wet or dry paper.


IMG_5661.JPG

That is the appeal of cars held together with screws and bolts - a few minutes fettling always shows some improvement.

Aye, it's just nice to spend a little time and effort cleaning things up and they come up magnificently. We attended the Didsbury show today and the glass Oilcoil has proved itself - the difference between these and the metal coils is that I can actually touch the Oilcoil after a lengthy run. Even with those metal coils mounted away from a heat source I could cook on them.

Is that a wet liner 2088 cc Standard unit?

Yes I believe so, just adapted for agricultural use. We haven't finisihed yet, as I only managed first gear... I at least want to get into 3rd before it seizes. It's royally fucked!

Just gave the car a once over, particularly the ignition coil to check for leaks, and the king lead is damp with oil - balls! Not so much a drip down but a leak is a leak. OK, enough pissing around now, I alter the position. Removed the battery and tray for better access and removed the Oilcoil to clean it up. Although they are hermetically sealed, whatever that means, some fluid had found its way out of the H.T. terminal. I thought I would have to make up a bracket due to the horizontal mounting, but what I thought were studs in the block were really just double threaded stud bolts. There are two of these for the coil and four more plain bolts all holding down an engine side plate. Therefore it was a simple matter to swap them around to give a much more sensible vertical position.


I really hope that's done now, I ought to have modified it in the first place.
In other news we went to view a rare Packard 400, which although a lovely car and one of the last senior Packards I have been infatuated with for years, it left me underwhelmed and it was just too much for me to take on.

Was it that Neapolitan flavoured one on Ebay?