Saving Old Seagulls

My 1969 Century is running fine and had a great day down on the river Saturday.

The engine has the the original Villiers coil in at and planning ahead I'm considering replacing it with a Wipac one - the question is would I just need to buy the base, wipac and flywheel and simply change it over - what should I look out for when sourcing the replacement? On ebay there are kits for £22.99.

you will need the whole kit... base plate-flywheel- plastic top plate-screw & stainless plate to hold the ht lead in place .. the only thing you could reuse is the large grub screw that holds/locates it in place

Definitely you'll need the baseplate and the flywheel, BUT how about NOT using the plastic cover!
Instead, use the nicer looking villiers cover with either "in the world" or "for the world". (they look good when they're polished and shiney)

Here's something else, polish the wipac flywheel to give it the appearence of a villiers.
Mix things up a bit...


Bottom line is you'll definitely need the baseplate and the flywheel.

jon

Thanks gents,
So base plate and flywheel it is then and mix and match other bits.

Will the wipic system expire like the villers coil - I mean do they have a short limited life? (compared to 56 year old villers one) or is it worth paying for modern villers replacement?

I would perhaps direct that question to the "racers" among us.

From my limited experience, most of the villiers magnetos will be a bit "fragile" to say the least
However there are a few that will just keep on going and going. Pot luck mostly.
The later wipac magneto (gold top points variant) are pretty good, but you never know.
Anything old like this will be either problematic or trouble free.

suck it and see...


jon

You could of course replace the villiers coil with a coil one from villiers parts. then you will have a part with a lifetime guarantee.