I just picked up an early Echlin Beehive Coil. The body appears to be an early form of plastic with fiber (possibly a wood and bakelite?); it has ridges on the base to reduce high voltage creepage and a thumb screw terminal for solid core rajah style or similar wires. It is 6V and it has a heat dissipation cap out of finned aluminum on the top; that houses a bulb. I believe the bulb to be used as a series resistor to drop the inductance of the coil allowing it to charge and discharge quicker than a stock type coil; allowing more revs... Am I in the ballpark with my ***umptions? When were these coils produced? Are these rare? If the bulb is infact a series resistor; is there an easy way to run one of these on 12V without having too much series resistance and burning one up? Or is it better off being used on a 6V hot rod? Help!
Did you ever find out any information on this. I just picked one of these up at a junkyard today. Its a 6volt IC 55 Echlin coil. I can't get the cap to screw off to check the bulb. Its super cool looking.
I didn't find anything more... I got PM'd by somebody to buy it. The 3 that I have found have been on Farm trucks, so I am guessing that they added a little more oomph to the spark fairly well for that use. I don't know about high rpm use, and have not tested it for saturation...
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