The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Coil Brackets; Why don't the coils fit in them?

Why don't any modern coils fit in the original brackets?

You can expand the bracket with the long screw but then the two mounting holes won't line up with the mounting bolts on the pushrod cover. Is the bracket supposed to be offset and use only one mounting hole? If so, why did GM make the brackets with two mounting ears?

I also reamed out the oblong holes on each ear but when the bolts go into the engine, the bracket is stilk too tight for the coil.

I have several Delco Remy coils from the 1950s and they're all the same size and the mounting brackets are identical to each other.

How is the coil supposed to be mounted on a 1950 1/2 ton truck? Were original Chevrolet coils skinnier?

I ran into one recently that was Made in Mexico that worked still but only slightly larger than the new one.
The bolt just being long enough. I`d think this would work...classicparts.com/chevy-gmc/truck-parts/1934-1946-truck-parts/engine/ignition-system/1941-76-ignition-coil-12-volt

I've never had that problem, but if it's something you're encountering for some reason, just bolt a piece of aluminum bar stock to the head with flat head screws, and drill and tap the bar at the right spacing for the coil bracket holes. There's a huge amount of room "outside the box" for solving such situations!
Jerry

This is a real thing. I have lived it on multiple engines now.

Easy to overcome but still maddening that it’s even an issue in the first place. Not sure what is the actual root cause….but have to assume the original coils were very slightly skinnier.

Yeah I had to ream both oblong screw holes in the bracket ears a considerable amount just to get the holes to line up with the two mounting holes on the engine side cover.

And then it's still tight enough where it'll hold the coil in place without that long thin machine screw, which is good because after the bolts are in place you can't get the machine screw into its slot.

When the truck came to me it was only mounted with one bolt in the bracket and the other hole was left blank because there was no possible way to put the bolt through the ear and the side cover. And you couldn't just put a bolt in the side cover because then the mounting bracket wouldn't lie flat against the cover.

I run into this on restoring Pontiac engines, doesn't matter what years, the coils and brackets barely fit each other.

Those coils might have the same problem as truck owners- - - - -as they get older, they get bigger around the middle?
LOL!
Jerry

Ran into that same problem on my '50 216. Methinks that the coils are made to the amazingly precise dimensions used in the Chinesium factories that furnish us with their sorry c**p.