Re: elgin coil
The Elgins of that era used Wico ignition parts. Sierra made a replacement coil for a number of years, but I don't see it in my catalog anymore. However, as Spike noted, you can swap in an OMC coil, but you have to press out the OMC laminates and press the coil onto the Wico laminates. This does not work on all Wico magnetos (.ie for larger motors) but will work on many of the smaller ones. I did one of these this spring on a '56 Elgin 5.5 and it worked beautifully. I didn't have to shim this one at all. OMC used two different coil laminate thicknesses for a lot of years, which may account for Spikes recollection of shimming the coil to fit. The currently available replacement coils (Sierra #18-5181/OEM #582995) are all the same size.
For the wire, use standard solid metallic core wire, available by the foot at NAPA, small engine shops, etc. They'll also have the proper sparkie boot. Some care is needed in routing the spark plug wire out of the OMC coil, as it exits in a different spot (horizontally) than the original coil (vertically).
- Scott
