Current thoughts on buying OMC “universal coils?

[amuller]

We used to change points and condensers on cars, etc, as a matter of course. But with prices up, and quality down, it’s no longer so obvious what to do….

[jeff-register]

It may be the case of an open in the secondary winding only connected by carbon. Carbon is used for resistors. Look very closely at the outside of the coil for a pin sized hole where it arced to ground from running without the plug wire connected. You make energy & if it has no where to go, it finds it’s own way. I could look up the cap but my book was loaned out but it was forever.

[Mumbles]

The 581419 caps were used to compliment the original 580197 coils used in the motors shown. The more common 580321 cap is used with the more common 584477 coils which were used in just about everything else OMC built. Since the offshore coils are meant to replace the 584477 coils, go with the lower uF rated 580321 cap if you are replacing the coils. I know the coils look the same, but they are different.

[amuller]

jeff-register wrote:

It may be the case of an open in the secondary winding only connected by carbon. Carbon is used for resistors. Look very closely at the outside of the coil for a pin sized hole where it arced to ground from running without the plug wire connected. You make energy & if it has no where to go, it finds it’s own way. I could look up the cap but my book was loaned out but it was forever.

That is more or less what I’d expect, except that these coils have been in my shop and not abused by running disconnected. Supposedly these are premium quality German coils. So…..? I’m starting to wonder if there is a lot of bogus product out there.

[amuller]

Mumbles wrote:

The 581419 caps were used to compliment the original 580197 coils used in the motors shown. The more common 580321 cap is used with the more common 584477 coils which were used in just about everything else OMC built. Since the offshore coils are meant to replace the 584477 coils, go with the lower uF rated 580321 cap if you are replacing the coils. I know the coils look the same, but they are different.

So is there any real difference in the performance of the coils? Or differences in the way the stator plate and flywheel magnets are set up? I see these listed are higher performance motors. So would using these coils on my low-performance 5.5 be a factor in the marginal spark i’m getting?

How did this get so complicated?

[Phil Budne]

amuller wrote:

This has been one of those days when everything I touch is bad or goes bad. Took two German coils out of a motor that was incomplete but running. One has a secondary resistance of 27 k and the other 240 k. No cracks, no exposure to moisture….. No spark, no spark, no spark….Grrrrr

The german coils were always the gold standard, I was wondering if you had a flaky meter, but Fluke is the gold standard of meters!!!

Maybe it’s something in the air? Mercury retrograde??

More than 10K on the secondaries makes my head hurt!

http://www.omc-boats.org
http://www.aerocraft-boats.org

[jcrigan]

Did you read the resistance at the secondary pin on the coil or at the spark plug boot?

[amuller]

jcrigan wrote:

Did you read the resistance at the secondary pin on the coil or at the spark plug boot?

Both, they are the same. But on one of the other coils there was a high resistance connection at the pin. The pin seemed rusty, even though I had tried to seal the connection with heat shrink.

[jim-moffatt]

most condenser are in the range 0.12 to 0.30. Also they almost always read high when they go bad so I would replace them.

[amuller]

jim-moffatt wrote:

most condenser are in the range 0.12 to 0.30. Also they almost always read high when they go bad so I would replace them.

Interesting. I would have guessed the opposite–that they would read low when failing. But these581419s are reading higher capacitance than any other ignition condenser I’ve seen or heard of, so it kinda makes sense.

I ordered an OMC branded tuneup kit. (Dan Anderson explained why the kit pricing is better than individual parts.)

Is there any source of specs for OMC condensers? The only one I’ve seen is for early–mostly prewar–stuff.

[Author]

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