Ignition coil substitute replacement for hard to find Homelite

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macs woodshop

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Refurbishing Homelite SuperEZ. First saw I ever bought, probably around 1978. Electronic coil, no points, is bad. Sounds like a common problem these models. Online, ebay, etc have few to none available. Some of the points type are available. Question: would it be possible to salvage the iron lamination from original bad coil and insert it in some more generic coil electronic that is available? wojuld this work? The original has the correct mounting holes in the lamination. What do I need to know? (trust me, there are a lot more things I don't know than what I do know. But with 65 years behind me, at least I know that!!)
Thanks any comments
 
You might be able to do the coil swap, sometimes baking the coil in the oven will drive the moisture out and revive it. Do a search on this site for coil baking to get the temperature and duration.
 
The coil for that saw is probably wound on a bobbin and the laminated pole piece is just inserted through the bobbin and bonded there to keep it in place, if that's what you have, the coil can be removed if you are careful about how you do it. Finding a replacement coil with the same construction that would allow you to swap coils becomes a problem as most newer coils have the coil ground wire attached to the laminations and the whole coil and bobbin is permanently potted to the laminations in a thermoset resin that makes it nearly impossible to separate them without damage. Finding a suitable coil on an older saw is the best approach, some people have found them on box store Poulans. If you order a new one, it probably will have the potted construction.
 
Just to add to your gloom, if you manage to find a replacement coil from a different saw, the timing advance curve could be quite different and you might have to spend some time with a timing light to check the basic timing and relocating the flywheel to get it in the right ballpark, however that being said, if you find a coil that has the same footprint as the pole piece ends of your coil and is meant for a flywheel with the same diameter and if your can fabricate a mounting bracket for it, it should be able to work. I'm running about 50% success with cooking them in an oven and even some of the success ones don't stay fixed for long.
 
Here is a link to another site where I posted the work around on the infamous blue Prestolite coils. I've swapped many on the XL-76/130's. The Husky coil used has the high tension wire coming out in an awkward place, but is long enough to reroute. Husky coils can be retrofitted either using their own cores with fabricated hold downs or by swapping cores. I have not swapped the Husky onto the smaller XL-1/ Super Mini/EZ, but, the blue Prestolite coil is the same, just with a different core bolting pattern. Timing is spot on. There will be less room to make the bend with the high tension wire, so things could/will be tight.

https://houseofhomelite.proboards.com/thread/9714/prestolite-ignition-core-coil-conversion
There are other posts on here from a few years ago when I was working on this retrofit. Others have tried it on the 76/130/Farmsaws etc., with great results.
 
Were the points type coils also this unreliable or is it just the ones that were all-in-one electronic? Forgive me, I understand the low level basic operation of the magneto/ coil/ spark. But lots of these individual points (no pun!) that I was not aware of , or didn't fully understand. Magnet poles, I never considered, for example. How might you determine the polarity of the flywheel? i suppose with a known magnet, such as a horseshoe form 3rd grade science class? But is there a marking or rating in a coil that lets you know what matches up with whichever flywheel? Harley T quotes above that the part numbers are the same, so that wouldn't be much help or clue.
Along those lines, a different post/thread here on Arboristsite suggest replace with points type coil and use an computer chip. That is maybe the easiest to come up with, if eBay means anything. But if doing that way, would the current flywheel work with that type coil/ and chip module?
Forgive me again for dragging this out. I am learning a lot from these posts, and it is interesting to me.
Thanks again
 
macs woodshop said:
Were the points type coils also this unreliable or is it just the ones that were all-in-one electronic? Forgive me, I understand the low level basic operation of the magneto/ coil/ spark. But lots of these individual points (no pun!) that I was not aware of , or didn't fully understand. Magnet poles, I never considered, for example. How might you determine the polarity of the flywheel? i suppose with a known magnet, such as a horseshoe form 3rd grade science class? But is there a marking or rating in a coil that lets you know what matches up with whichever flywheel? Harley T quotes above that the part numbers are the same, so that wouldn't be much help or clue.
Along those lines, a different post/thread here on Arboristsite suggest replace with points type coil and use an computer chip. That is maybe the easiest to come up with, if eBay means anything. But if doing that way, would the current flywheel work with that type coil/ and chip module?
Forgive me again for dragging this out. I am learning a lot from these posts, and it is interesting to me.
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Older points type magneto ignition were very reliable, normally just had to clean and adjust points gap and maybe change a capacitor that had dried out. The newer ignition modules are prone to failure mainly because of the semiconductor package that is built into the coil to replace the function of the points. High temperature is a main cause of semiconductor failure and these things do get hot. Replacing the bad coil with an older points magneto type combined with an electronic module should work well, only problem might be mounting the coil as the mounting holes might be different. I have an early XL-76 that used the points system and when I received a newer version with an electronic ignition module that was bad, I found the engine casting still had the original mounting posts for the older coil, they had just added a new mounting bracket to adapt the new module to the older mounts. Would have been easy to convert to the above suggestion.
 
That is the problem, when you buy a flywheel, you don't know which one you will get. To determine if the polarity is the same, or different from the old flywheel, just takes a spare magnet to see, compare.
 
Hoggwood said:
Here is a link to another site where I posted the work around on the infamous blue Prestolite coils. I've swapped many on the XL-76/130's. The Husky coil used has the high tension wire coming out in an awkward place, but is long enough to reroute. Husky coils can be retrofitted either using their own cores with fabricated hold downs or by swapping cores. I have not swapped the Husky onto the smaller XL-1/ Super Mini/EZ, but, the blue Prestolite coil is the same, just with a different core bolting pattern. Timing is spot on. There will be less room to make the bend with the high tension wire, so things could/will be tight.

https://houseofhomelite.proboards.com/thread/9714/prestolite-ignition-core-coil-conversion
There are other posts on here from a few years ago when I was working on this retrofit. Others have tried it on the 76/130/Farmsaws etc., with great results.
Click to expand...

Hoggwood, Thank you!
You are saving me a lot of time trying to figure this out.
I already dropped $80 for a used coil, but my Super EZ belonged to my dad and we cut a lot of wood with that saw growing up, so I'm very attached to it and want to find a cheaper way to keep it running if this coil dies.
 
Here is some info links I saved about doing a $20 mod to keep a blue coil of death EZ saw running good.
AND lately I've heard that standard magneto is now making replacements for about $60.
I have not reviewed all of the saved links posted below but like you I started trying to do a mod that would keep a good saw running W/O doing the coil bake and going to a NLA expensive blue coil that was likely to fail again. The last link posted has some info about when I first started asking questions on this site.

I did the Anzac mod described in one of these links to couple of my EZ's about 2 years ago and they are still running strong.

Homelite EZ Blue coil of death replacement links



https://houseofhomelite.proboards.com/thread/6319/dollars-minutes-cure-prestolite-blues



https://houseofhomelite.proboards.com/thread/10007/aftermarket-husky-question-prestolite-conversion



Homelite EZ Electronic ignition Links to Blue coil of Death replacements

https://houseofhomelite.proboards.com/thread/9681
https://houseofhomelite.proboards.com/thread/10007/aftermarket-husky-question-prestolite-conversion

www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/homelite-super-ez-ignition-questions.348570/page-2
 
AND more info about the EZ blue coil of death mod:
Homelite EZ blue coil of death replacement.

See page 3 .



https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/homelite-super-ez-ignition-questions.348570/page-3



Homelite EZ blue coil of death mod

For $15



Replace the module but use the Original Homelite lamination core.

I've installed a $15 Anzac 503901401 Module onto a EZ Blue coil A94111 coil core lamination and got a good run.



Can use a Stihl Module Stihl #0000 400 1300 Module



Link to review a post about such

https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/homelite-super-ez-ignition-questions.348570/page-3
 

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