oil coil

[wingski]

I just checked out the Mallory coil that was causing problems on my A. It checked out bad, and all of a sudden I remembered something. This Mallory coil is oil filled, and years ago, I was told to mount all oil filled coils upside-down with the distributer lead at the top instead of the bottom. That coil was mounted on my A with the distibuter lead pointed down like normal. I noticed a tiny bit of oil around the bottom 12v input lead and wonder if that Mallory had leaked enough over the years to expose some of the windings.

I’d appreciate your opinions about what is the correct way to mount an oil filled coil. What is the advantage of an oil filled coil over a standard coil? What are the reasons for any coil to go bad?

Thanks,

Mike