MTFCA Forum

I am up dating my AC coil tester (pictures to follow). During the work on the much looked down on buzz box tester, I wondered just how many other cars from 1907 to 1927 used the tremble coil for ignition?

And before the HCCT was introduced, just how did the coils get to be adjusted, not for ultimate performance, but to work and do the job of ignition of the fuel?

The early literature from the manufactures of tremble coils is a read that would make the supporters of high tech coil adjustment cry.

So, what cars used the buzz coil, and what were the instructions on adjustments?

And of interest, the worlds best car of the period, the Rolls-Royce, apparently used buzz coils.

I found this on an on line auction site:

""A wooden-cased trembler coil for early Rolls-Royce cars,varnished wooden case with angled lid, opening to interior containing trembler coil marked 'Rolls-Royce Makers' with vibrator and contact points and terminals, the inside of the lid stamped '37' and with instructional label, the case measuring 24cm high.""

Many early gasoline vehicles and many stationary engines used buzz coils. They work well on single cylinder applications and on very low speed multi-cylinder engines. In the case of engines with 4 or more cylinders operating at speeds over 600 RPM or so, "time to fire" of each individual coil can become an issue, with the result being that each cylinder will fire at slightly different times, resulting in timing errors between cylinders of up to several degrees. This contributes to poor performance and rougher running. Early methods of adjusting coil sets were better than nothing, but left a good bit to be desired compared to electronics-based adjustment of a set of coils.