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Electronic distributor


pflaming

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Sunday,  caravanning back from a car show in Bishop CA. A friends electronic distributor went dead. He had to leave his car at a friend and returned home with the caravan. I know these are popular, but NOT on my vehical. Had he had a convential distributor with him, could he have switched and driven home? 

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4 hours ago, pflaming said:

Sunday,  caravanning back from a car show in Bishop CA. A friends electronic distributor went dead. He had to leave his car at a friend and returned home with the caravan. I know these are popular, but NOT on my vehical. Had he had a convential distributor with him, could he have switched and driven home? 

Yes,unless there was something wrong with his old distributor or coil.

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33 minutes ago, pflaming said:

So, knuckleharly. If the OE replacement distributor is in good repair, it will swap back in? Seems your answer is yes, correct me if I am wrong. 

Of course. It was made to work with that engine,wasn't it?

I am pretty sure you will have to use the original coil and ballast resistor with the distributor,though. Or direct replacements.

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Knuckle is right. However the person making the change, has to do some limited rewiring depending on the type of electronic distributor they installed. That's when it pays to keep track of what was changed and how to change it back.

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You guys are scaring me. 

I put a Pertronix system in my 47 DeSoto; so far, so good.  But any moment, when we're far from home... 

When I installed the Pertronix system, I added a junction block to the inside fender, near the distributor, and I drew diagrams of how to connect the points-type ignition vs. the Pertronix system.  Fine, but I dread having to redo the everything along the side of the road, including setting the timing.  Maybe I'll just buy an extra Pertronix Ignitor.

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"You guys are scaring me. 

I put a Pertronix system in my 47 DeSoto; so far, so good.  But any moment, when we're far from home... 

When I installed the Pertronix system, I added a junction block to the inside fender, near the distributor, and I drew diagrams of how to connect the points-type ignition vs. the Pertronix system.  Fine, but I dread having to redo the everything along the side of the road, including setting the timing.  Maybe I'll just buy an extra Pertronix Ignitor."

The ugly reality of owning and driving a old car is that when it breaks down,and ALL cars will eventually break down,you can't just trot over to any auto parts store and buy the parts you need to get it running again. The same is true with a old car modified with modern after-market mechanical and electrical parts.

That's why you keep some spare parts in your trunk. Even if for some reason you can replace the faulty stuff yourself where you break down,if you are away from home it's a lot cheaper to pay someone to fix it for you than it is to hire a rollback to haul it home. You have to have the parts before you  can hire someone to install them,though.

Most people keep the old parts  they take off when updating something,and re-installing them is simple. Since you already own them,they are pretty cheap,too.

I'm one of those people who carries a new fuel pump in my trunk,still in the box the manufacturer shipped it in. I also carry a new fuel filter,distributor cap,points,condenser,rotor,and a couple of spare plug wires. You can't carry everything,but if you can replace the fuel delivery system and the ignition,that covers most of what goes wrong on the road.

In your case,carry a spare ignitor,but check for shorts that may have burnt out the old one before you install the new one.

Edited by knuckleharley
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I ran Pertronix ignitions on air-cooled VW's for many years without having any problems. I did, however; always keep a spare distributor under the back seat ready to drop in, along with a fan belt, clutch and throttlle cable, voltage regulator, fuel pump, plugs and wires, and a bunch of other stuff I never needed. There is a theory that if you carry a whole bunch of spare parts and a ton of tools you'll never need any of it. Always worked with my shovelhead. I rode that sucker all over the U.S. with 50 pounds of spare parts and tools and never broke down. I am a maniac for maintenance, though..:)

Edited by MackTheFinger
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Pertronix is very simple and quick to replace back to points. Shouldn't take no more than 10 minutes.

So just keep your old points in the trunk/boot in case of the pertronix failure.

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On 10/9/2017 at 12:59 AM, pflaming said:

Sunday,  caravanning back from a car show in Bishop CA. A friends electronic distributor went dead. He had to leave his car at a friend and returned home with the caravan. I know these are popular, but NOT on my vehical. Had he had a convential distributor with him, could he have switched and driven home? 

Everyone seems to assume this is/was a pertronix ...?  If so, I am not too surprised as I have heard of many failures and unless you carry their expensive parts then, like your friend, you can be stranded.

In full disclosure, I am a huge fan of the Mopar electronic system. The ballast resistor is the weak link but it is cheap and easily replaced, and I have never heard of a failure while under way, only at starting.  Also, if using the gm module then there are rarely any reported issues. It seems to me that pertronix is still doing the beta testing on the general public....

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22 hours ago, wayfarer said:

Everyone seems to assume this is/was a pertronix ...?  

If you inferred that because I mentioned Pertronix you're mistaken, I made no assumption. In fact, my experiences with their ignitions have all been positive. The VW conversions I ran never gave me any problems. I mentioned that I carried a complete distributor but with air-cooled VW's it's easier to swap a ready to go distributor on the side of the road than it is to replace a set of points/condenser or a Pertonix module. Carrying the spare was un-necessary, however; since I never had a failure.

The Harley electronic ignitions I had were junk so I still run points. GM HEI module failure was fairly common but easy enough to fix IF you had the foresight to keep one in the glovebox. Ditto for the Ford Duraspark box. When they die you either install the spare or walk and I learned early that not many strangers will stop to help. I did have a friendly police officer take me to a service station once. I still had to ride in the back seat.:)

Fortunately cars are more reliable these days and cell phones negate the need for hitch-hiking. My 2012 Econoline has over 150k on it with nothing but oil changes and tire rotations and still on it's second set of tires.

And more on topic, I have points ignitions in all my old cars. Properly maintained they perform very well.

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"Fortunately cars are more reliable these days and cell phones negate the need for hitch-hiking. My 2012 Econoline has over 150k on it with nothing but oil changes and tire rotations and still on it's second set of tires."

 

[aside]. when i parked my '87 T Bild, 5.0 EFI and sports suspension, it had 300,000+ miles, the only thing not OE was a new water pump. It still passed California smog, and consistently gave me 22 - 25 mpg. It was a great road car. 

Back to topic, electronic distributors 

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