Has Anyone Ever Wound a Briggs FH Coil???

[JBoogie]

just wondering if anyone has attempted this before? i got an original coil from a buddy, and he told me it was bad. so we dug in and found it to be open all over the place. the paper they used between layers must have been acidic and eaten the lacquer off of the wire. on top of that, they didn't bake out the moisture after winding, so where there was no lacquer there was all kinds of green oxidation and corrosion. so we're gonna try to re-wind it....

there are 28 layers of No. 36 wire for the secondary

136 turns of No.8 for the primary.

No. 36 is "finer than frog hair" and i would like to know if anyone has any tips for winding that stuff. it seems like it's gonna be a B!tch to get that stuff to wind flat next to each other.

we will be using .005" mylar instead of the "fish paper" they originally used, and we will also be doing a bake-out and will encapsulate the coil, so moisture should never be a problem and i expect the new coil to last another 80-100 yrs.

[Elden DuRand]

Good luck winding that coil! I'd think that someone here sells reproduction or new old stock coils. Even a good used one would be a LOT easier than "rolling your own".

Reminds me of a line in a comical home improvement book I read about a hundred years ago. "It's sort of like repairing a steam locomotive while it's underway. Technically interesting but not much fun!".

My two cents worth.......

Take care - Elden

[JBoogie]

elden, WE DID IT!!! just now getting the time to post the results. we had the engine ready for the wauseon show!

well, actually my dad (who is an electrician) wound it up. he made a simple fixture with a clamp on a shaft and a crank and used packaging tape instead of the mylar to insulate the 30 layers.

IF anyone decides to attempt this, make sure the wire is NOT dinged AT ALL because this will make the #36 wire very fragile and cause breakage. my dad tried using some wire that was dinged and got about 5 layers in and it just snapped off, so we had to get some new stuff. once he got the technique down he could crank 5 layers in about an hour. this is the best running FH i've ever seen! doesn't miss a beat, like some of the "hit n miss" FH's out there.

this engine is ready to run another 80 yrs. not bad for an engine that was literally a basket case when i got it!!!