Hi Dave,
But the coils aren't supposed to be connected to the outer case and I
wouldn't think the potting material around the coils would understand
polarity. If you reversed the wires on the primary leads, the coil
shouldn't know that anything has changed in the car. Weird.
John Friese
--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "David Chapman" <david@m...>
wrote:
> John, A modern coil like the Bosch may be OK but there is a real
problem with the original silver Lucas coils that were fitted to
Amphicars and many other British cars, This came out in the UK press
in the 80s when many people were converting to negative earth to
avoid blowing up phone chargers etc. It was bad enough to show on the
reason stats published by breakdown organisations like the AA.
>
> I recall Lucas technical produced a document explaining why. It is
something to do with the insulation between the windings in the coil.
The reverse of polarity causes something to happen at a molecular
level and after a few weeks the insulation fails and they get hotter
and hotter until they totally stop working. Another reason to change,
and something that can be measured, is with the Lucas coil the spark
output drops significantly when polarity is changed.
>
> David C
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John Friese
> To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 5:44 PM
> Subject: [amphicar-lovers] Re: Conversion to negative ground
>
>
> Bill,
>
> I put the coil replacement issue in the area of "urban legend"
since
> I can't imagine why such a failure would occur. I'm not even
sure
> why switching the wires on the primary posts would make much
> difference but if that were done, the coil wouldn't know the
polarity
> had been switched.
>
> I've never had a coil failure and I know that the coil in one of
my
> cars was also in the car before it's conversion, four years ago.
> It's a Bosch brand coil though and I doubt it was the original
coil
> in the car when the car was new.
>
> John Friese
>
> 67 White
> 67 Red
>
>
>
> --- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Connelly"
> <billiam@e...> wrote:
> > Richard:
> >
> > You may also want to replace your ignition coil, or at least
carry
> a spare at all times where you can easily get at it, since coil
> failure shortly after such positive-to-negative ground
conversions
> seems to be such a common occurrence as to be almost a given.
> >
> > ~Bilgy
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: a_colo_native
> > To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 11:13 AM
> > Subject: [amphicar-lovers] Re: Conversion to negative ground
> >
> >
> > > Hi everyone. I've arranged to have my car converted to
> negative
> > > ground. The shop that also installed an electronic
ignition
> now
> > says
> > > that my fuel gage does not work. I've also learned my
wipers
> might
> > > not "park" correctly after being turned on then off.
> >
> > Richard - Look at the URL below from my personal site I have
> dealing
> > with this issue. iT should answer your questions. Everything
> should
> > work fine (Clock and blower motors too). The wipers will tend
to
> park
> > a little above (about an inch) where they used to park. The
fuel
> gage
> > will need re-wired. It is a complicated task outlined in the
page
> too.
> >
> >
http://www.amphicar.net/minnow/Neg_wiring.htm
> >
> > John Bevins
> > Rocky Mountain Amphicar
> >
> >
> >
> >
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