'40 p10 deluxe firewall ignition coil

[ushp12]

Hello everyone.   I tried to start my '40p10 after coming back after 6mo. of absence.  Before I left it started fine, but upon my return I found out that my Battery Maintainer was not doing it's job.  So I went and got a new battery , no charge, and put it in.  The outcome was not good, it would crank over but would not fully start.  I could keep it running for a few seconds but it ran so rough like it was not firing on all cylinders, so I shut it down.  Upon looking at the spark plug wires and the coil wire it looked like they had been burnt to a dark brown.  I thought, ok, it is time for a tune-up.  As I was pricing things , I ran into a surprisingly high price for the firewall coil.  I see other coils for this car in the 15 to 25 dollar range, but 250 for the firewall mount coil.  What is the difference and why?  Is there a way to use the less expensive coils instead?    Thanks in advance for your help.

[Andydodge]

The factory style firewall coil is a specific style that has a an armour covered wire from the dash ignition switch that is held onto the rear of the coil on the interior side by some small clips........you prise the clips open, then undo the wire from the ignition switch.....was supposedly to make the car harder to hotwire or steal...........on the firewall side there is just the wire going to the distributor and the high tension lead also going to the dissy.............this type of coil stopped being used in the late 40's as far as I know so they are not common now...........there used to be a triangular bracket available that fitted around a "normal" round shaped coil that then bolted to the 3 bolts on the firewall that holds the coil.....you then had to make a wire that attached to the ignition wire hanging from the armoured covering and feed it thru the firewall to the front of your normal coil...............make sense?.....................lol....................to get it started I'd just get a normal coil and change the wiring a little to suit............andyd     

[desoto1939]

NOS 6 Volt Ignition Coil 1935-42 46-48 Plymouth Chrysler Cadillac Hudson MC1-C go on ebay and here isa proper replacement coil with the correct moutning with the wire in the back got $60.  

When you have the older car and you want the correct part sometimes you have to pay the price but search around. Also get to know your car very well becasue when you go to swap meets you just might find parts that you ahsould have in your parts supply such a cap, toro, point condensors and even breaker plate assemblies.  I have some cross reference lists for your car contact me.

Rich Hartung

desoto1939@aol.com

[knuckleharley]

If  your car sat for 6 months I hope you drained all the old gas out of it before trying to start it.

If not,do that now,including any gas in the carb float bowl.

[jeffsunzeri]

More money has been wasted on replacing coils needlessly than on any other operation on old cars that I can think of. Leave your coil alone, and search for the problem elsewhere.

[Ajgkirkwood]

All i know with my 1940 chrysler is it has a firewall mount coil. Went to napa and got a 'common' 6v coil for like 50cnd and works fine for me. However with my car it would crank but not start. Plugs were fouled. Cleaned them and gapped to .35. New wires cause they were falling apart. New rotor and cap. Condenser was replaced/looked good) fired up no problem after that