Coil wire ; is carbon fiber ok ?

[Duffy1]

I read some where that you should NOT use a carbon fiber coil wire on a Model A . I did a search and was unable to find any info on this . Is this correct .If so, why . Appreciate all input .
Thanks

[christian]

works fine for me.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

John, my boy, carbon wires work fine, I run them for the coil wire & the plug wires, just because some Model A friends said, "Nope! won't run"! You probably just had some ooold tired ignition components.
An A/C electric motor technician never goes to a good auto mechanic to get advice on a 100 H.P. A/C electric motor.
I can remember that I have only ever replaced a coil on my own cars twice. One had a cracked tower & was arcing out, the other was on an old Dodge pickup with 12 volt system, started quick & ran GOOD, until a BOOM & SMOKE & died. Underhood was covered with oil spray & fine copper shreds. Found the bottom of the coil, it was an oil filled 6 VOLT COIL!!
Bill W.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Carbon wires can work, but IMHO are less reliable because they can arc and burn the carbon inside the wire. The more it burns and creates a gap, the harder the coil has to work, until the coil fails or the car fails to run. This happened to my BMW R69 motorcycle. It was always hard to start and sometimes took 30 or 40 kicks to make it start. One day it quit in the rain when I was a half mile from home. I had to push it home, and the next day I discovered someone had installed carbon wires. I changed to solid wires, and now it starts on the first kick, like it should.

[Purdy Swoft]

The model A will run on carbon wires. Unless a person was worried about radio interferance, I wouldn't recommend carbon wires on a points ignition. The carbon wires need to be replaced whenever the spark plugs are replaced, not so with metal wires, that is enough reason for me not to use carbon wires on the model A.

[H. L. Chauvin]

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Hi Duffy,

To add just a little to what Tom is correctly stating, many times people incorrectly "pull" on the far 'end" of a carbon wire for removal of carbon coil wires or removal of carbon spark plug wires.

The surrounding rubber carbon wire insulation stretches & elongates with applied tension; however, the interior carbon material does not stretch -- it breaks, & causes an interior gap for the spark to jump.

As the spark continues to jump this carbon gap, the carbon disintegrates & the gap gets larger.

Next, with a large gap, the engine naturally is harder to start & runs quite terribly.

All carbon conductors with gaps can be easily fixed -- just provide new carbon wires, if one wants to go that route.

Just please remember when removing carbon wires, not to stretch them by pulling on the far "end" of the wire.

Hope this helps to extend the life of Model A carbon wires -- may be advisable to carry metal wire spares "if" on a "long" tour & the designated Model A tour mechanic is going around lifting hoods & checking everybody's spark plug gaps.

[Dick Deegan]

Ditto

[Duffy1]

Thanks for the response gentlemen ; A fellow club member installed one of those high tech ( LED) turn signal kits and when the engine was running the blinkers would randomly start blinking . The manufacture said you had to use a carbon fiber coil wire. This corrected the problem . I was under the impression that it was best to use a solid coil wire on a Model A .

[Bruce Lancaster]

If interference is the issue...there is a better way, spiral core wire. I have used a lot of it from ACCEL, though never on an A-B.
This stuff has a mystery core like the carbon stuff, but that core is surrounded by a spiral wound wire that is a real conductor and is stronger and better connected to terminals than carbon core. It does not transmit static to radios in my experience, unlike traditional solid core.
Apparently it prevents interference by the orientation of the wire...it goes out 90 degrees to conductor, but since conductor is not lengthwise it is kept within rather than broadcast as with linear path wire. I have no idea if that explanation is correct, but the stuff works.
If getting from accel, you can order individual wires in various lengths. You need to add a B to part number or your wire will be bright yellow, standing out on your engine like a stray banana!

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

Hi Duffy,

To add just a little to what Tom is correctly stating, many times people incorrectly "pull" on the far 'end" of a carbon wire for removal of carbon coil wires or removal of carbon spark plug wires.

The surrounding rubber carbon wire insulation stretches & elongates with applied tension; however, the interior carbon material does not stretch -- it breaks, & causes an interior gap for the spark to jump.

As the spark continues to jump this carbon gap, the carbon disintegrates & the gap gets larger.

Next, with a large gap, the engine naturally is harder to start & runs quite terribly.

All carbon conductors with gaps can be easily fixed -- just provide new carbon wires, if one wants to go that route.

Just please remember when removing carbon wires, not to stretch them by pulling on the far "end" of the wire.

Hope this helps to extend the life of Model A carbon wires -- may be advisable to carry metal wire spares "if" on a "long" tour & the designated Model A tour mechanic is going around lifting hoods & checking everybody's spark plug gaps.

A small sign on my cars: "YOU MAY SIT IN MY CAR & 'NECK' OR BLOW THE HORN, BUT DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT OPENING THE HOOD"! Bill W.

[stouchton]

Carbon suppression wires lower the current when the spark occurs - this is how they limit EMI.

Peak voltage stays the same, so the spark will start to jump, but then current is limited.

This causes a weaker spark "energy" so that igniting the mixture in the cylinder is not as efficient.

If you got enough bang coming out of the coil, then all is well. If not you will have ignition issues - primarily at idle.

Christian? Christian??? Replace that wire!!! That might be your whole problem (in the other thread of course...) She be missing erratically from weak spark at idle, and you vacuum readings will be all over the place.

Sorry to derail the thread....

[Purdy Swoft]

I believe that you are correct.

[Pete]

Carbon wires will work very well if all else is in good shape.
The only reason for using them on any car is if you have electronic equipment on
board that is sensitive to radio frequency interference. (RFI aka ignition noise)
If you have no modern electronics on board then you will get better performance and gas mileage with the STOCK setup.
If you need to run RFI suppression wire check out Jacobs 200 ohms per foot stuff they have that has a WOUND nichrome wire core instead of carbon. Lasts forever and is super strong.

[Duffy1]

Thanks Pete