Installing new spark plug cables 1947 TD 20 Sea Horse

[Shamus]

Hello all,
Like many others, I inherited a nice 5 HP TD 20 Sea Horse. I’m trying to get it up an running for the spring walleye season. Its been sitting around in various garages/boat houses for at least 30 years. I’ve been well guided by this forum but I’m learning as I go, making mistakes – tried to get a local guy to look at it but he told me to polish it up and hang it on the wall…. I did run into a new problem – the spark plug cables outer insulation is cracking at various points. I read on another forum where it is very hard to apply new spark plug cables due to the danger of damaging the ignition coils when soldering them off/on. I’ve checked the coils in place with a digital multi meter and both show no resistance on the main windings and a minimal amount of resistance on one of the secondary windings. Both show spark when I wind the I’ve bought new copper core cable, 7 mm if that means anything, and plan to replace the old cables, which have the old copper screw on connections for the plugs, with modern sockets. Have any of you replaced the plug cables and can offer some constructive advice on how to get the old ones off and apply new ones without damaging the coils?

Thanks in advance,
John Egelhof, Bemidji, MN .

[crosbyman]

can you slip some heat shrink tubing over the frayed wires … maybe 2 layers and reinstall the boots ?? if that is an option

do not use black tubing in case it contain carbon particles

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[frankr]

If you have no experience with soldering, this is no place to learn. The best advice I can give you is find some help from somebody experienced in electronics work. OK, I’ve said it. Now for the procedure if you want to go for it. The first step is to remove the old wires. That is the easy part. Simply apply heat enough to melt the solder and wires loose from the coils. Get it hot enough, to melt it, then get away from it. Now the fun part. Strip and tin the ends of the new wires for attachment to the coils. Install the wires, and use your imagination to hold the tinned wires against the coil tabs. Now is where the experience comes in. Hold your hot soldering tool against the wire and coil tab and touch the solder to the juncture and hold it long enough for the solder to melt, and FLOW. Then get the heck away from it and DO NOT DISTURB until the solder has solidified. Disturbing before it hardens will destroy your work. Likewise, taking too long runs the risk of melting the coil. Not giving it enough time to flow results in what is called a cold solder joint (NG) BTW, use only rosin core solder. No other flux is needed. Do not, under any circumstances use acid core solder or paste.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by frankr.

[crosbyman]

Ha… the art of soldering… in every telephone central office were 12 foot rolling ladders with a soldering iron and…. gazillions of connections were soldered to hook up eqpt to eqpt on a distribution frame .

First thing you learned in a central office and sweeping the floors at the end of the day to pick up the scraps 🙂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_distribution_frame

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[Matthew Pieklik]

crosbyman wrote:

Ha… the art of soldering… in every telephone central office were 12 foot rolling ladders with a soldering iron and…. gazillions of connections were soldered to hook up eqpt to eqpt on a distribution frame .

First thing you learned in a central office and sweeping the floors at the end of the day to pick up the scraps 🙂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_distribution_frame

then came the wire wrap tool …. Give me a short!!!!

[aquasonic]

Lots of good information from Frank. Before soldering, clean the wire and coil buttons with acetone. Have minimal solder iron contact with the coil button and favor contact with the wire and solder. The wire should only be stripped back approximately 5/16″, any more is unnecessary exposed wire. Use rosin core solder, as Frank stated, with absolutely no flux. Flux, in this case, can actually harm the connection. Alligator vise grips, lightly used, are very helpful for holding the wire. Once the solder is liquefied, the hard part is having a steady hand to hold the wire in place for a few seconds until it hardens.

I had almost no experience soldering prior to attempting this on a TD-20, and I did ruin the first coil that I attempted. That was the learning curve.

Improvise-Adapt-Overcome

[Shamus]

I’ve thought about that…thanks!

[Shamus]

Thanks! I’ll have to work up my courage. The tip about the alligator clip is great.

[Shamus]

Thanks, Frank. Good advice!

[Shamus]

And I did join today…

[Author]

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