1957 Johnson 5.5 horse coil question

I just aqquired a 57 Johnson 5.5 horse motor, with tank, for $60. The tank, other than needing a fresh paint job, is perfect. The motor, other than also needing a fresh paint job, runs. I ran it for awhile, and after making sure it ran (had to fiddle with mixture jets and replace that washer that goes around the main jet), it was running pretty good. I could not get it to idle very low though, but a quick adjustment of the points helped that. I then cleaned it, it was oily and nasty, and went to run it again and it wouldn't run worth a squat unless it was near wot. I knew I must have got water up in the ignition system, so I pulled the flywheel to blow the water out. The coils are badly cracked, parts of the sheathing falling off. My question is, since they do work, can I resheath them in epoxy, or should I quit being a cheap arse and just buy a new set. My thoughts are, it can't hurt to try. If it doesn't work, I'll just pop for a new set. Anyone ever done this?

Re: 1957 Johnson 5.5 horse coil question

Jason I read in a post somewhere someone ask the same question. It might have been on another site but whom ever answered said he had done it several times. I can't remember what he covered it with though. I will search around and see if I can come up with it.

Re: 1957 Johnson 5.5 horse coil question

Jason,<br />I tried fixing up a set once. I had to first bake them in an oven for a long while to drive out the moisture. That worked, and I had planed to re-encase them with Silicone RTV (which has excellent HV properties) when one of the recepticals for the spark plug lead fell apart. Ideally, you would want to use 'electronics grade' RTV, since it doesn't produce copper attacking acedic acid when it cures. But I was just planing to use whatever was handy - probably cheap silicone caulking. That is to say, I wasn't going to invest a lot in the project.<br />But the coils are less than $15 to you from NAPA or Iboats (18-5181). I end up paying about twice that up here and waiting two weeks for them to arrive. Despite being an incredible cheapskate myself, and impatient, I pay it gladly.<br />Personally, I perfer the aftermarket coils. They seem to spark better to me.<br /><br />Hope this helps!

Re: 1957 Johnson 5.5 horse coil question

If you are going to epoxy the outside, you may want to consider unwinding the coil, replacing the wire insulation, and rewinding. This should only take a couple days', and save you 20 bucks.

Re: 1957 Johnson 5.5 horse coil question

Thanx guys, I went ahead and tested them, and one is dead. Thing ran pretty good on one cylinder, but that probably explains why it doesn't idle well. I went ahead and ordered a new set as well as points and condensors. This will be my kicker, replacing the 54 Goodyear seabee 5.5 I have on now (the seabee runs perfect). No need having to wonder about it.