Armoured Cable Between Ignition lock and Coil

[A Sherratt]

Hi.
After thirteen months of welding underneath my P1800 I am now roadworthy and MOT'd.
Having read the discussions about 123 ignition etc I was/am considering changing my coil to a new unit, however, as you are aware there is an armoured cable between the ignition lock and the coil.
My queries for you are:-
a. What does this armoured cable do?
b. What effect does its removal have on the lock?
c. What do I need to do to upgrade to a new 'sports' coil i.e. do I need to put some extra wiring in etc etc.

Your help would be gratefully appreciated as I don't wish to make a hash of a perfectly good running vehicle or be off the road for another thirteen months!!!

Many thanks

[austingipsy]

You don't need to cut the armoured wire at all, take a feed from the fuse box to power up a new high power coil and leave the old one in place. Just swap over the wire from coil to condensor onto your new coil.

[austingipsy]

Oh and change the lead over of course

[mike gilbert]

Another factor is how original or neat you want your engine bay to look. I didn't want extra coils and/or blanked off holes in my bulkhead when I fitted electronic ignition and a high voltage coil. Nor did I want the original ignition lock because they tend to break the keys off and leave you imobile. So I cut the armoured cable off and threw that and the ignition barrell away.
Then I cut the old coil out of its triangular bracket with a disc cutter, put the new coil into the socket (it was fractionally smaller circumference) and used some JB Weld to secure it. Painted coil and bracket black as original and fitted it back to the bulkhead. Fitted a period 60's circular chrome ignition barrell and wired it up which was no problem. The only give away is there is a postive and negative spade connector on the top of the coil, instead of just a negative. You might be able to see it if this picture uploads.
After all that i'd say the electronic ignition was a definate improvement, I'm not sure about the coil though

[Pedro Fandango]

Originally Posted by mike gilbert

Another factor is how original or neat you want your engine bay to look. I didn't want extra coils and/or blanked off holes in my bulkhead when I fitted electronic ignition and a high voltage coil. Nor did I want the original ignition lock because they tend to break the keys off and leave you imobile. So I cut the armoured cable off and threw that and the ignition barrell away.
Then I cut the old coil out of its triangular bracket with a disc cutter, put the new coil into the socket (it was fractionally smaller circumference) and used some JB Weld to secure it. Painted coil and bracket black as original and fitted it back to the bulkhead. Fitted a period 60's circular chrome ignition barrell and wired it up which was no problem. The only give away is there is a postive and negative spade connector on the top of the coil, instead of just a negative. You might be able to see it if this picture uploads.
After all that i'd say the electronic ignition was a definate improvement, I'm not sure about the coil though

did notice there was only one terminal on the original coil, i thought the other terminal might of been the dash end of the coil (the other side of the bulkhead)

[mike gilbert]

the 'other' terminal is the armoured cable

[Derek UK]

Clarification - A single wire goes from the ignition switch to the base of the coil to make the positive connection. This is enclosed in the armoured cable.

[Pedro Fandango]

Originally Posted by mike gilbert

the 'other' terminal is the armoured cable

Originally Posted by Derek UK

Clarification - A single wire goes from the ignition switch to the base of the coil to make the positive connection. This is enclosed in the armoured cable.

ah i get it now, sorry folks

[Gordon Hunter]

Originally Posted by mike gilbert

I didn't want extra coils and/or blanked off holes in my bulkhead when I fitted electronic ignition and a high voltage coil.

For what it's worth (not a lot probably) and from what I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong), the longer the HT lead from the coil to the dizzy, the more likely the deterioration of the power from the coil to the dizzy along the HT lead (even more likely with an old deteriorating set of leads?).
The P1800 has a perticularly long main HT lead.
I don't know if any deterioration would be enough however to negate the use of an uprated coil, though I believe this might be why most rally / race guys will move the coil to be mounted as close as possible to the dizzy to allow the strongest possible spark.
Magnecor do a very fat set of silicone HT leads for the Amazon. I have a set on my P1800 with a high power coil mounted very close to the dizzzy on the top of the LHS inner wheel arch.
However I do now have a nice triangular blanking plate on my bulkhead!

Gordon

[mike gilbert]

Gordon,
it can't make that much difference or there would be a similar (if smaller) loss of voltage for the longest spark plug lead compared to the very short one to spark plug four, leading to uneven power between the cylinders. However the longer the lead the greater the opportunity there is for faults, degradation and failure of the insulation of the lead to occur. So for reliability I think a shorter lead is preferable. But I'm as clueless as you on the finer points of electrics.
Mike