In a message dated 7/3/03 11:20:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
owner-mgs-digest@autox.team.net writes:
> Why add a $75 gadget to a new perfect distributor? The Pertronix offers no
> performance and no realistic reliability advantage. If you maintain your
> points and keep them clean and gapped, you can not beat it
>
> The Pertronix kits are meant for people with relatively worn distributors.
> The collar takes up the shaft wobble and normalizes timing back to what a
> new distributor would have produced. The only other reason to get it, is
> for people who don't want to check their points every 18 months... otherwise
> there is no advantage.
>
> The Pertronix ignition is the biggest rip-off since Weber DGV downdraft carb
> kits.
Well, there is some truth in what you say, and you've seen me go off on other
ignition related mods that I consider silly-assed like the Mallory
distributor, but I don't think the Ignitor is quite as bad as you state.
I agree that the reason many people would want to use them is to remedy worn
distributors that they should really be having rebushed anyway.
I agree that with a new distributor, the magnetic trigger offers no real
advantage to points. In fact on my old Lambo, I still run points - there are 2
distributors, a six cylinder unit on each bank operating independently (yes,
you
can end up with one half of the engine timed differently than the other bank
if you aren't careful), and each one is dual point. The points cost about $50 a
set (x4!). I went with points instead of using something like the Ignitor,
because the point sets aren't under a lot of stress and will last a long, long
time - the distributors, which I rebuilt, use double roller bearings instead of
single bush. In that application, there was no real disadvantage to going to
a more modern ignition set-up, IMO.
On my race car, however, there's a couple of reasons to consider the Ignitor,
and I realise that racing is a very limited application, but thought I should
mention it.
You don't get all that much time on a race car ignition before submitting it
to extreme stress. I suppose I could put the distributor into a street car to
make sure the point rubbing block was properly burnished and that the points
had worn in and been regapped, but that isn't always convenient to do,
especially as I don't usually have a handy 4 cylinder MG to do it on.
What all too often happens is that you go out and race and submit a new point
set to 7500 rpm, and something happens - the rubbing block breaks off and you
DNF, or the gap just closes down enough to affect timing, and the engine
doesn't run properly. And then you pull in between heats and have to talk the
long
suffering pit crew into fixing things, which if you recall on a Twincam,
involves jacking the car up, removing a front wheel and climbing into the
wheelwell to access the offending part.
You CAN get at the distributor from above if you have long arms and small
hands, but the proximity of the headers and large masses of very hot metal are
usually enough to dampen the pit crew's enthusiasm for that, and in fact my
crew
swore never to go anywhere near the distributor after having a spark from my
MSD enhanced coil nail him and had him twitching like an electrocuted
chimpanzee, while offending all for several pits around with the language.
Short answer - the Ignitor does not have the same predilection for changing
the timing that points do. That shouldn't matter much on the street as one you
have the points bedded in, as you point out (no pun intended) only the people
that don't want to perform regular maintenance would benefit.
I do use a magnetic trigger for those reasons, but as you advocate, I use
points on my street cars.
And I agree that the Weber DGV, along with the Mallory distributor, is the
biggest rip since the magic fuel filter that is supposed to get you 100 miles
per gallon.
Bill
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