Back in the old days, when auto makers were switching from breaker points to solid state ignition, there were a couple of attempts at optical rather than magnetic distributor pickups.
Who went down this (blind) alley?
Chrysler
I remember reading something about that many years ago in a car magazine.I was thinking it was Ford. cuhulin
It wasnt really a blind alley. There were several systems that came out with this technology, IIRC.
I recall some aftermarkets setups that had this, and if I remember correctly, they weren't necessarily that prone to trouble.
breaker points to
optical rather
IIRC Audi had optical system in the 4000-5000 and I think i remember one on the BMW 2002 Tii ? well a search ought to get you better info...
Chrysler, Ford both had OEM Mallory, MSD, Crane, and HD had them as aftermarket items. They work very well for some applications.
Applications where the accumulation of an oil film or dirt in the optics is unlikely?
I converted my '65 Corvair to an optical electronic ignition. Here is the .pdf on it. http://69.20.53.62/pdf/90002000a.pdf It worked flawlessly.
Chas
"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@hovnanian.com:
You mean like normal distributors failing when it rains?
I did. I was working in electro-optics at the time. The problem was component temperature. I wanted parts with MIL-SPEC temps. The pickup and LED needed to be in the distributor, so I knew it needed to be high temp. At that time no phototransistors or LEDs were readily available in the commercial market with anything other than commercial temperature ratings and I didn't want to rely on that.
This was in an area when folks were putting voltage regulators into alternators and suffering high burnout rates, so I was forewarned of the problem. So I never actually built the device.
I had a Mercury Capri at the time, which had the same distributor as the Pinto. The rubbing block was too small and overstressed and one needed to adjust the points every few thousand miles :-(
There were work-arounds for those problems even at that time. Fibre optic light guides, for example... It would not have been as compact an arrangement, but probably workable.
Our company had a lot of this sort of problems early on when we tried to adapt Digital computers to rugged environments. Heat, vibration, contaminated air, etc.
Mallory Uni-lite is still optical.
nate
By 'normal' you mean the old points distributors?
The mag pickup types don't care about a litle rain.
"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@hovnanian.com:
So you don't think that someone couldn't make such a device dirt proof?
Based on what I've seen inside distributors, no.
Granted, there are probably quite a few distributors out there with spotless interiors. But if I wee a manufacturer and I had even a few percent failure rates due to dirt, I'd switch.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.