Electronic Ignition Conversion?

Yes.

SteveW

Thank you.

A comprehensive list of vehicles / distributor types. I'm a little surprised there is the market to support it. However, clearly there is.

I suppose some of the parts are common- eg some of the sensor parts. Whereas the fitting plate will be more specialised.

As I said in the original post, I was just curious but I do appreciate your response.

No experience of their points conversions, but lots of reports of their imitation Lucas distributors being rubbish.

If you really want to improve a distributor system, get rid of it and go wasted spark with a crank trigger wheel and MegaJolt, etc. Allows you to map the curve for modern fuels too.

These people advertise in the Austin-Healey Club Magazine every month:

I have no idea how good they are.

You still have the problem of the dizzy drive - backlash in chains and gears. And a rotor arm and cap - both of which don't last that well.

There's a very good reason modern cars don't have dizzies.

Purely out of curiosity I was wondering if "wasted spark" had any impact on plug life for the older type of plugs?

Or are those "older" plugs now much better than they used to be?

I've got wasted spark on the SD1. Simply used the plugs specified for later Range Rovers which have wasted spark. One thing it does demand is resistor plugs - possibly due to the shorter plug leads (I'm using EDIS coils - COP isn't really much use on the Rover due to the exhaust manifold heat.)

still quite a few types available try google LUMENITION are one, I have had one a 1967 V4 transit for a quite few years the AccuSpark/Powerspark dont seem to have a great reliability record

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Thank you- I'm not looking for one I was simply curious.

I'm a bit surprised there is enough demand but equally pleased for those who run 'older vehicles' such parts are available. While I don't run an older car, I do appreciate them.

Others may disagree but, in my experience with MODERN electronic ignitions, plugs just don't wear. That is across 2 Hondas, a Kia, a Mazda, Renault, and Smart over 20+ years.

I always remove plugs every year or equivalent service, inspect, clean (inc the treads), check gap*, refit. I didn't replace plugs for years/many miles. If there was no noticeable loss of electrode etc, they were good.

*changed to, I think 'iridium' plugs several years back (I may have the name wrong). These have a set of 4 earth electrodes and you don't gap them. I don't pretend to have notice a particular change in performance, maybe the plugs are a little cleaner when checked each service.

We put a 4cl optical chopper - Lumenition jobby in the Kitcar when we built it ~30 years ago and it's still running. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I had a Luminition set I transferred to a few cars over about 15 years. Very well built.

But that's not to say it still is.

Many have a service life of about 100,000 miles. Not sure how much it is down to the plugs themselves or ignition system.

It's mainly down to the electrode material.

Iridium and platinum don't wear like conventional plugs. Iridium are cheaper than platinum and last just as long. 30-50 years ago the material for high spec plugs was gold-palladium and they cost more than a set of 8 copper plugs. That meant they were only used by F1 and 2 stroke race bikes.

30+ years ago I learnt that a "dud" NGK copper plug was better than a new plug of any other make (Bosch or Champion).

There is a small wear effect from spark polarity. One plug of a pair on a wasted spark system has reverse polarity, the spark goes from the ground to the plug tip. This can wear the earth electrode so some fine wire tip plugs (NGK "laser" platinum) have an earth pad made from the same stuff as the electrode. Iridium single earth electrode plugs don't have this "target" on the earth and it's over 30 years since I had a gold-palladium plug.

It seems quite good quality. Bit bulky by modern standards and it's dependent on the mech/vac advance system.

The "Bantam racing manual" says you will spend your life chasing elusive earth faults.

Mate ran a Royal Enfield GP5 in the Manx GP, I was "spanners". We had ignition trouble. In the morning it would go north and west but not south or east. In the afternoon it wouldn't go south and west but was crisp going north and east. Took a long time before someone figured out that the optical chopper didn't like being exposed and had to be in the shade.

Not something you would find on a car with the chopper and optics under a dizzy cap. But if you ever put a plug straight on the coil lead and spun the dizzy to "test" it with an exposed optic, then it would likely fail.

Resistor plugs limit the peak energy of the spark thereby reducing the interference on your car radio (and others nearby).

I had platinum plugs in a motorcycle years ago but have never seen them readily available for the various cars I've owned. I think I used copper plugs in one of our cars but I think it was with an 'old fashioned' ignition.

The motorcycle I fitted them in, a Yamaha, had the most critical timing I have even seen. Plus it needed checking and adjusting about every

500miles. There was a strobe mark but the only way to really do it was with a dial gauge.

Conversely, another motorbike I had- Eastern European 350- used a simple plunger tool, although I suspect you could have used a pencil it was so uncritical. Once set, it was good for 1000s of miles although I checked it.

I'm glad you mentioned spark polarity in relation to plug wear. I have a vague memory this being mentioned in various articles etc. I don't recall the detail but I think the polarity of the EHV at the instant of sparking could vary (the secondary of the EHT is grounded but the other 'end' can go +ve or -ve), depending on the drive electronics.

Electrically it makes sense, whether it contributes to reduced plug wear I'm not sure.

;-)

I had similar when working for Kodak on micro film/fiche and an A0 flat bed filmer.

Loads of light aberrations being seen on the film at different times of different day and for no technically explainable reason.

Then I happened to be there when the lady who did the filming was wearing that particular cut glass broach. ;-)

I noticed Lumenition also did a hall effect trigger:

"MAGNETRONIC ELECTRONIC IGNITION For less demanding application in classic 4 and 6 cylinder vehicles of the 1960's to 1980's fitted with Lucas 20 or 40-series distributors (e.g. from 1959 to 1985) or for the VW Beetle, flat-4 cylinder engine, a Lumenition Magnetronic ignition offers an alternative, lower cost electronic ignition to the Optronic without sacrificing the Optronic's proven reliability.

Replacing contact breakers and condensors, the Magnetronic requires no maintenance and has no parts to wear out

A trigger disk fitted with high-power nyodimium magnets is fitted over the distributor cam and rotates over the rugged die-cast metal module case, triggering a sensor in the Magnetronic module which fires the coil."

Assuming you had a compatible dizzy (what am I likely to have in a

1987 MkII Escort?) I'm not sure exactly what "For less demanding application" might be? Would that include our shed runabout in comparison with the unit being put in a Westfield etc?

Cheers, T i m

Rather more to it than that. The design of coil and the dwell figure determines the spark. Altering the resistance of the combined lead and plug may cause it not to function properly.