Sprint coil recommendations?

[davbat]

Hi All,
My Dolly Sprint is giving signs the coil is failing, engine cuts out and to restart I have to slightly move the coil lead... I know there is not a problem with the leads as I have swapped these out with 3 other lead sets of known provenance.
The coil I currently have is black with '12v ballasted' written on it, can anyone recommend a suitable replacement(s)?

Thanks in advance, Dave

[James467]

Yes, a Bosch 0 221 119 030...

Untitled by james_shephard_uk, on Flickr

[davbat]

Cheers James, yours looks to have an external balast fitted, ideally I would like to replace my existing one like-for-like with a built in balast if possible...

[James467]

The coil itself does not have a built in ballast resistor, you will have a resistance wire in the loom to provide the ballast, it's just that you can't see it. The external ballast is just external on early 1850s.

If you have a ballasted system that is the coil you need.

J

[davbat]

Thanks James, as you have probably guessed my technical understanding is not too great with this sort of thing...
I need to get one of these reasonably quickly as I hope to be at the Notts show in Oxford in July, looking on Ebay there's one in Germany for £39 but possibly a bit of a concern over delivery time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bosch-Igniti ... 0290.m3507

Do you know where I could get one a little more local?

Many thanks, Dave

[Len Hughes]

Don't know where they are but worth a look

https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/bosch/676 ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Awaiting Repair]

Same but cheaper???

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bosch-Igniti ... .l4275.c10

[RobSun]

A few year or so ago I was having troubles suggesting that the coil was dodgy but on changing it the problem persisted so further investigations were made. I discovered that the resistance wire was not resisting and was putting out the full voltage produced by the alternator. Worth checking, I fitted a separate ballast resistor as per the earlier models and Toledo's. This works correctly with a ballasted coil. It was also suggested that a normal non ballasted coil would have probably been ok also.

I have had no feed back at all as to the questions asked, do the resistors in the cable fail over time or was it a case of BL changed specs near the end of production and told no one?

The coil you describe looks to be the same as I had fitted and this looked to have come from Rimmers but was fitted before my ownership

[Carledo]

A few year or so ago I was having troubles suggesting that the coil was dodgy but on changing it the problem persisted so further investigations were made. I discovered that the resistance wire was not resisting and was putting out the full voltage produced by the alternator. Worth checking, I fitted a separate ballast resistor as per the earlier models and Toledo's. This works correctly with a ballasted coil. It was also suggested that a normal non ballasted coil would have probably been ok also.

I have had no feed back at all as to the questions asked, do the resistors in the cable fail over time or was it a case of BL changed specs near the end of production and told no one?

The coil you describe looks to be the same as I had fitted and this looked to have come from Rimmers but was fitted before my ownership

The ballast wire on a Sprint is completely contained within the wiring loom, a white lead from the fusebox "in" side is routed via seveal other bits and bobs (Tach, voltmeter etc) to a point in the n/s engine bay near where the washer pump wires emerge (but still within the loom) here it is joined to the ballast lead (pink with white trace) and it immediately doubles back and runs within the loom all the way back across the dash, out through the o/s bulkhead and thence to the coil. The length of the lead gives it the desired resistance. So it is not physically possible for the lead to "lose" resistance (though old age and poor connections MIGHT allow it to gain some) and it still runs at 12v just the resistance is 3 ohms not the normal 1.5. the only real possible failures of the ballast lead are from breaking or shorting, which would result in a total failure to proceed, unless the key was held in the start position (a certain test for ballast resistor failure that mechanics have used for more years than i've been in the trade)

Calling a ballasted coil 6v or 9v is a misnomer, they are all 12v, it's the RESISTANCE that alters. Ask Jeroen - and when he stops cussing in dutch, he'll tell you the same thing!

However, bearing in mind the fact that the cars are over 40 years old and many have lead hard lives, it is more than possible that someone in years gone by has suspected a ballast fault and bypassed the lead with a bit of normal wire, causing a mismatch which will eat coils, points, condensers etc for a hobby! Without chasing all the wires back to source and possibly dissecting the whole loom, it's impossible to tell for sure!

There was NO spec change in the ballast lead for Sprints in the whole 8 year production run.

HTH, Steve

[RobSun]

I would agree entirely regarding the wiring and that if anything the resistance would go up with age. There could be a short or as mine was one of the last produced was the wire actually fitted even if the specs didn't change. There is definitely some evidence that the coil had recently been replaced before my ownership with the Rimmer's one and not long into my now over 5 yrs ownership the problems started. During this period I was also having problems with misfiring at cruising which turned out to be the Lumenition ignition being faulty. Sorting this didn't sort the overheating coils though, and yes Jeroen thought I was an idiot when I came on here looking for help. We did sort it out between us though.

In my case the wiring looks original, correctly colour coded and coming out of the loom in the correct place. There is no sign of any tampering to the loom. Once it had been confirmed by an auto electrician working at a restorers that my findings were correct and there was no resistance he suggested using a separate ballast with a 12v ballasted coil, of which by now I had a few. Concerned about the possible chance that there was a short, in the end I used a new supply from the fuse box put in for the removed electronic ignition to the ballast. Since doing this and using one of the coils I had that had been showing all the signs of failure, there are no more hot coils, cutting out when hot and not being able to restart till cooled down etc. etc.

I can only deduce from this that the wire fitted in the loom was the cause of all my coil woes so just add it as an aside to others to check it out if all else fails as was my case.

[Reg]

Hello Dave. Yep, I have the same Bosch as James..have used them for many years with no problems. Most motor factors should do them.. I got mine from Camberley auto factors, which is now known as Andrew Page.

Good luck.

[davbat]

Hi All,
Thanks to everyone for their guidance & support on this, I can confirm that I have now taken delivery of a nice shiny Bosch unit...

Best regards to you all,
Dave