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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Need an opinion!!

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Need an opinion!!     flatheadfan 07-23-2020 @ 1:44 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 450 Joined: Oct 2009 I am thinking about changing the distributor on my '36. For me, easy access to the distributor was not one of Henry’s better ideas. I have an adapter kit that looks like a simple swap and could make repairs much simpler when and if needed. More specifically, anyone currently using one? How reliable is this adapter? Any downsides? Now, don’t get excited. The car is NOT a 100 point show queen but something that does see an occasional country drive. Thanks Tom carcrazy 07-23-2020 @ 2:12 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1674 Joined: Oct 2009 Hi, I have used these coil adapters on a couple of engines and found them to be trouble-free once they are installed. During the installation process, make sure that the carbon brush on the adapter makes contact with the contact ring of the rotor. My '40 Ford was driven for thousands of miles with no problems attributable to the coil adapter. Make sure you use a good coil that has an internal resister with this adapter. You will want to bypass the current resister that was in your primary ignition circuit as it will no longer be required. kirkstad 07-23-2020 @ 3:21 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 192 Joined: Jul 2017 I have been running a coil adapter on my 36 for over 5 years now with no problems. I use a 6 volt coil with an internal resister I purchased from Napa. I've had Skip Haney rebuild my original coil,but the adapter works so well I'm saving the original as a spare. As carcrazy noted, make sure you bypass the stock resister that's under the dash. Also make sure the coil your going to use has an internal resister,it should be labeled on the coil. Frank 1934 Ford 07-24-2020 @ 1:00 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 574 Joined: Oct 2009 I have two of those and used them over the years and went back to a rebuilt distributor and coil from Skip Haney. I just had him do up a spare distributor & coil for me to take a spare on national tours. I found a used condenser and am converting (bracket soldering) one for spares. That way I have not had to worry with the resister. 1934 Ford's since 1972 This message was edited by 1934 Ford on 7-28-20 @ 9:01 AM JM 07-25-2020 @ 4:04 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 823 Joined: Oct 2009 I've owned at least a half dozen of those modern coil adapters over the years. Most of them came attached to helmet type distributors I purchased or were included with groups of miscellaneous parts I purchased, or were just given to me in some cases. Some were made from thin flimsy phenolic plastic, while others were high quality molded or machined from thick plastic stock. I wound up giving most all of these away since I prefer to use original type coils that have been rebuilt by Skip Haney with modern high temperature insulated components. John trjford8 07-25-2020 @ 7:16 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4222 Joined: Oct 2009 I have also used the coil adapters with no problems. As stated use a round coil with an internal resistor and by pass the stock resistor. TomO 07-25-2020 @ 7:55 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 Here are my thought on this: I agree that Ford engineers could have given more thought to service requirements when they designed the engine, but low cost and reliability were higher requirements for them. The current supply of round coils are not the same quality as the rebuilt coils from Skip. I put a new round coil on my Lincoln last year because the one on the car looked bad and the new coil lasted about 10 miles. I am now running the scratched up coil on my Lincoln. I like the looks of the original coil and most of the adapter plates do not look very good to me and I see no advantage over the stock setup on a 36.The round coil needs to be mounted in the engine compartment in a location that keeps the high tension lead short has led to some people taping the coil to the plug wire conduits or other locations where it looks out of place. When you have a Skip's coil on the car the most likely component to fail is the condenser. Guys who drive their 32-36 cars may be able to tell you wher you can get a reliable condenser and then you should be good fo about 10,000 mile with no ignition problems. Tom This message was edited by TomO on 7-25-20 @ 8:02 AM

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