Those who switched back to points from petronixx..

[DNK]

I have got a Crane if any one wants it.
Been trying to give it away

 

[skikir]

I have had a Crane xr700 for 25? years. I had it in my 70 tr6 and pulled when I sold it. Put it in my 67 Chevy Van. Ran great. Pulled it when I sold it. Put it in my 74.5 tr6. pulled it when the car rusted away from around it. Put in my 72 tr6. Fires right up every time even when the battery is low. Only issue is whether you use a resistor or not depending on your coil. I suspect maybe this has lead to some petronix failures. One of the few things I have got my money out of.

 

[angelfj1]

Yes. I agree. Although the IGBT they use for the solid state switch, could have been selected for high temp applications. They may have changed to a lower rating to save money. I've been running a CD-type ignition in the 250 for 30 years and have never had a problem. My unit (can't remember the mfg) uses a magnetic reluctor to replace the points AND dumps approx. 400 volts DC into the coil primary. This produces a very hot HV spark.

The Pertronix type units, OTOH, are mearly a replacement for the point contacts. I have had no problems with this unit but I do carry a spare dist. in the boot.

 

[Mark Jones]

I switched from Pertronix to Crane in my 80 Spitfire. I find the Crane electronic ignition gives a much smooth idle than the Pertronix.

 

[Twosheds]

One often reads of drivers who use Pertronics and carry spare points, but I can't recall a post about running points and carrying a spare Pertronics.

 

[Moseso]

When I was rebuilding everything, and reading here daily, I was persuaded, by the number of posts about failed Pertronix kits, not to bother with trying one. I run points. They work fine. They are easy to service. They are cheap to replace.

 

[Andrew Mace]

One often reads of drivers who use Pertronics and carry spare points, but I can't recall a post about running points and carrying a spare Pertronics.

Good point, John! :laugh:

I've never run anything but points. I do carry a spare set (never had to use it), and I also carry a spare condensor (never had to use it) and rotor (did use it once, to get a buddy's MGA up and running again after one of those more recent bad rotors gave out on him). All of the above covers eight years and over 35k miles on my current Herald driver.

 

[Twosheds]

Good point, John! :laugh:

Is that pun intended, Andy?

 

[Andrew Mace]

 

[karls59tr]

Thanks for the Napa info Dave. Hopefully they'll have the parts in stock up here in Canada but if not they'll be able to order them using those part numbers. A lot of parts store clerks just go slack jawed when you say you want something for 59 Triumph.

 

[hondo402000]

I have been running the pertronix with a MDS 6AL unit and gold coil since I got my TR6 about 5 years ago, the only issue I had in the beginning was the car would not shut off when I turned the key off and after studying it for a couply of weeks and getting the crap shock out of me by pulling the coil wire to get the car to shut down, I re read the MDS instructions and there was a little statement about if your car runs on after the key is in the off position you have to install a Diode to stop current from going back to the MSD unit,and the diode was in the MSD box of stuff, runs fine and turns off ok. other than one cap shorting out I never had an issue with the pertronix system

and besides its just a magnetic switch so not sure why you guys are having trouble with it. Maybe adjusted too close, too far away from the trigger or your shaft its worn and wobbles causing the trigger not to pick up the signal at high RPMs

HOndo

 

[emmett1010]

Pertronix is not a panacea for a worn out distributor, which I suspect is much more common than we realize. After much, much ado, I finally bought a new pertronix distributor with the pertronix coil, as a set from a guy in Penscola, for $188. I redid my vacuum advance port on my rear carb, to obtain ported vacuum.
The results were amazing, simply amazing. It starts instantly, pulls like a horse, and my gas milage increased to the point that I thought my guage had broken.
I still leave my old point 25D in the trunk however.
Emmett

 

[TR3driver]

and besides its just a magnetic switch so not sure why you guys are having trouble with it.

A) It's not just a magnetic switch, it has several transistors, one of which is sensitive to magnetic fields.

B) Most folks are running nearly 5 amps of coil current through it (as Pertronix intended), while you are only running a few milliamps through it.

C) For the Hall effect transistor to work, the magnets have to be in place, right position, right distance, etc. You got a good one, it seems, but maybe everyone wasn't so lucky. (In other words, their quality control may not be the best.)

BTW, I've had several MSD 6 boxes fail as well. MSD repaired one of the ones that went thermally sensitive for me, but returned the one that suddenly died as "unrepairable". That one I took apart myself, and found that the board was burned as well as several components. And I just trashed the MSD 5 that went thermally sensitive on the motorhome (would only quit while pulling a steep hill in hot weather) in disgust.

 

[rooster]

BTW, I've had several MSD 6 boxes fail as well. MSD repaired one of the ones that went thermally sensitive for me, but returned the one that suddenly died as "unrepairable". That one I took apart myself, and found that the board was burned as well as several components. And I just trashed the MSD 5 that went thermally sensitive on the motorhome (would only quit while pulling a steep hill in hot weather) in disgust.

Same here, had a MSD 6 get temp sensitive and then died with the burnt board and components. This was after about 4 years of use driving to and from work every day. Tried the pertronix but never got it to work properly, now using points.

 

[skikir]

I think that's why I like the formally Alison unit. It has an optical emitter/detector using an interrupter wheel that is not as subject to distance to the cam and wear of the distributor. Plus with the electronics remote from the engine it gets better cooling. I'm not wild about the extra wires but with the bonnet down who cares. It works and works well with out any tune up (I have had a condenser go bad on a trip)

 

[DrEntropy]

We've put mag proximity and optically triggered units in a lot of LBC's over the years. Replaced many of 'em on failure, too. That's why we use points in our personal cars.

Currently we have a client with a V-12 E-Type running an XR-700 Crane, it has been in the car for almost a decade, after replacing a failed Pertronics one (which replaced the failed OEM lump). The car MAY see a coupe hundred miles a year, stored under a stilt style house on the Gulf most of the time... points foul in a week in that environment, so that's the argument for the eel-ektronic trigger unit.

...that, and converting a 12-hole Jag dizzy to points is a bugger of a job. :wink:

 

[hondo402000]

I stand corrected

Hondo

 

[TR3driver]

Funny how parallel discussions happen so often. Here is a post from the Team.Net mail list that might be of interest to folks on BCF. I have no financial interest or other knowledge of this product; just sounds like an interesting option.

<span style="color: #000099"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">The 123ignition is quite a clever switch, which measures the energy taken by the coil on each firing. It adjusts the "dwell angle" on each stroke so that your coil neither heats up on low revs nor is undersupplied with energy on high revs. It cuts out the current from the coil after the engine has come to a rest even if you forget to switch off the ignition key. It eliminates all the disadvantages of shaft wobble and worn out springs and weights in the dizzy simply because it is triggered by hall effect and does not have any springs and weights. It doesn't need a crank trigger, it is more or less a plug & play system with all the electronics built into the dizzy housing. The advance curve is taken from a programmed matrix and you have no moving parts inside the dizzy except of the shaft and rotor. You can either select one of 16 pre-programmed advance curves by turning a little rotary switch (123ignition version) or by storing two advance curves to your like into the eprom (v
ia USB-cable) of the dizzy (123\TUNE version). These two curves can be switched during driving and can be replaced as often as you want. The software which can be downloaded for free has a so-called tuning-mode, which allows the (co-)driver to change the advance curve while the car is running under several load and rpm situations. The timing (rpm- and loadwise) can be optimized in dashboard mode with the help of an implemented stopwatch. These features can save a lot of dyno hours. The price is higher than most of these Pertronix units, but stays well in the 3 digit $s. Ok, it is not made in the US, but Europe, which is far away from Asia.

If you have any questions on the above described ignition systems, just ask me via info[at]brits-n-pieces.com. I'll be more than happy to answer them. I hope you don't mind this shameless self-promotion but I thought this might be of interest to all of you.

Eric
Brits'n'Pieces
www.brits-n-pieces.com</span></span></span>

 

[TR3driver]

For yet another option, see https://www.starchak.ca/tech/pdfs/hitachi.pdf

It's written from a BMC/Mini point of view, but might be applicable to TR2-4 as well.

 

[Perrymip]

Very interesting material above.

In spite of the fact that Inspector Morse claims his '61 Mark II is "pre-electric."

Thanks for passing this along.

I'm another of those who installed an Allison set-up twenty-five years ago. It's worked so well I've never even considered alternatives.