[rfeenstra]

Russ, you mentioned that you did/do not use  the separator between the primary and secondary.  Does that work in all cases or just when you use new wire for both primary and secondary?  No doubt that the modern enamel insulation is much better than the old stuff.  I used a separator cuz the original did.  Off course the original caused the problems in the first place. You can see one of the green spots in this photo.  I used tape as the separator hoping that the adhesive would not cause a problem down the line.  To help against that  and to hold the wires in place, bees wax was melted over the windings before the tape was applied.  I'm also counting on today's insulation materials to be more immune from chemical attack.