I am sure this has been asked before would you say it’s an advantage to ditch the points and condenser and go electronic ignition? Thanks Jim
It certainly reduces the maintenance...but people will be on soon with tales of failing units. I've a Petronix unit in a refurbished distributor and I'm happy and have been for several years.
Leccy ignition, but keep a spare dissy with points in the van, if only to rule out Leccy ignition problems if you break down.
If you justify a 123 set up then that's the one to go for. It's expensive, but I haven't had a spot of trouble with mine.
They`re certainly better and help negate the issues using points in a worn dizzy but as mentioned earlier they`re not 100% reliable so have a known `good` setup to eliminate the poosible faiure of the lekky unit ... I bought a cheapo Accuspark complete dizzy `to try` and its been there for 5 years or so without any issues
Pertronix Ignitor III have their own special troubles if the 12 volts on the coil is not stable. Accuspark break after many miles but on the other hand you dont pay the USA scene tax so you can nearly afford 2 Accuspark for one Pertronix. Both of them are killed instantly by swapping the red amd black leads over.. An electronic ignition can sometimes keep a marginal ignition setup running , it can also break a properly working setup when it starts going wrong. I have a pre-timed spare points SVDA distributor in my bus for swapping if I have problems .. but last time it was the coil and the distributor cap .. Dont bother with 009 style mechanical only distributor on a bus unless you want to be left behind by even a Nissan Micra. Unless you have 4 barrels of carburettor and no vaccum signal..
No. I thought it would be an upgrade and if the distributor is worn then I suppose it could be argued adding an electronic set up would alleviate random points settings. So we upgraded. Pertronix 1 for the vac advance dissy on Chips type 4 FI. All good for about 18months 2 years until the bus started to get this odd, occasional, total loss of power. Usually on the motorway, under acceleration, it would suddenly drop out for a split second, then carry on as if nothing had happened. It couldn't be replicated it just happened randomly. Now, that could be any number of things but the simplest thing to do was to switch back to points and condenser. The problem has not recurred since. It had to be the module breaking down and despite Pertronix having the better reputation than Accuspark, they are still not fool proof. Regularly maintained points ignition is just easier to diagnose if there's an issue and it saves carrying a spare Pertronix module. I always now set up the distributor out of the vehicle. It's way easier to see what's going on and you can check for wear etc without straining in the back of the bus... It would seem that the 123 is the most reliable choice of electronic ignition but as I don't need a mapable or variable curve, just reliability, the old set up works just fine. Imo, btw....
Timing very quickly goes out with points. Electronic ignition, once set up, will keep the timing indefinitely but can sometimes fail. I've never had one fail in 20+ years, but they're cheap enough to keep a spare on board.
All of the above rely on there being no wear or backlash on the drive gear .. crank fire / mega jolt is true electric ignition
Powerspark on mine has been going for years with no issues and no faffing with points. Worth it for £30 and if it fails just get another one!
But far too complicated for the average punter... 123s are excellent, although getting a bit pricey these days. As well as switching the coil current, the timing advance is done electronically - better than a bunch of Chinese springs. The spark balancing works really well, giving a rock-solid idle. Mine's been on 10 years, as hasn't blown up yet (touch wood).
I find it interesting that you guys who have no issues, e.g. @Molteni Mike and @The Drama Man, have had these components for a number of years. It was on that basis I decided to go electronic. It just seems to me that the stuff we can buy now is nowhere near as good quality as stuff bought in the past. Rubber, don't get me started. In the last 2 years I have replaced both the primary hand brake cable and the clutch slave cylinder on the syncro. Both rubber boots on these items, sold as direct replacements for genuine VW, have disintegrated to non existence! Why is there so much *****ing plastic in the sea if it just vanishes....
I’ve a 123 on my bay and on my splitty. Beautifully made and no problems but they have only been on a short while. The one on my FI 2.0 bay makes it run lovely. I couldn’t find a decent og distributor when I restored the bus and the repro one I tried with a power spark module didn’t last.
Proper annoying. Found a pool of fluid under Big G's off side rear wheel yesterday evening. One of today's jobs became replacing a slave cylinder. The leaking one was less than 12 months old. How long do we think the branded ATE replacement will last.... Apologies for off topic pictures but we like pictures...