Has anyone converted their car to electronic ignition?

I would like to do this as I fully intend for my car to be (when it is ready for the road) to be useable in modern day traffic on a regular or even daily basis.

My "modern" a 41 year old Rover P6 is used every day as my driver and I converted this to electronic ignition, Aldon Ignitor, and this has reduced the need for maintenance and produced consistent performance and reliability.

The Aldon Ignitor fits within the distributor cap and there are no changes to the external appearance AND is easily reversible!

I am not really interested in an installation that will be visible as despite the conversion I would like the appearance left unchanged.

Unfortunately, Aldon do not have a Ignitor listed for the DK4 range of distributors, so cannot (will not) help, although if someone tells them of a suitable kit they will add it to their list. Unfortunately, Aldon are not the manufacturers (they are American) and in their experience the manufacturers would not be interested in building a custom kit unless they can have a production run of thousands (lol)!

However, they do say that there is not technical reason why one should not be fitted - the criteria is fixing to the base plate and spindle being a snug fit with the chopper. The only other point is that there should be 20 thou gap between the module & the spindle chopper, which if using the orignal points mountings should give this without any problems.

The kit I have on the Rover (Lucas 25D) would fit the base plate without any problems, the spindle may be a bit short for the chopper (I do not want to fit this from my Rover in case this gets damaged as they are a tight fit).

So really, not much to stop the up-grade to electronic ignition!

However, Aldon will not sift through their parts to find which bits will fit, so it is over to us enthusiasts to determine what parts will fit!

My question to the forum is thus "has anyone undertaken this conversion, and if so, what distributor components fitted well". I think the module for a Lucas 25D will be ok, but the spindle chopper still needs to be checked out for its suitability.

Please let me know if you have undertaken this work, I am NOT interested in hearing views about originality - my car is not a museum piece!

Over to you.

Gary

Gary

How about fitting a Bosch distributor? Lots of people have done this and it seems to be perfectly acceptable to most people, and may make electonic ignition an easier proposition. I admit I am no expert on the Bosch conversion so perhaps someone who knows about it will reply?

I am quite in favour of people upgrading the odd component to improve the driving of the car, in fact I have done so myself as have several people I know.

I also respect those who wish to keep there cars authentic down to the last nut and bolt! Not realy for me, but there's room for all of us on board

Steve.

Some years ago I fitted an in line electronic ingnition to the Ulster. It was wired between the coil and the dist', made the car start first time and ran for around 10 years trouble free. At this point it stopped working and I went back to normal set up as I could not find another similar to fit. Since then I have bought a Bosch Dist', which runs a treat, much smoother than the Electronic Ignition.

My Father's '26 12/4 Clifton is also fitted with an in-line electronic ignition (it has a coil conversion), and the car starts on the button. Both these devices are/were hidden away under the dashboard and cannot/could not be seen. No mods needed to made to the cars other than an extra bit of wiring.

Good luck

Ruairidh

I think I'm right in saying that some early types of electronic ignition system, maybe those that Ruairidh describes still retained the points as a "switch". The points "switched" the electronic system at very low current and thus they did not burn out or require frequent adjustment as points sometimes do. the system that Gary mentions does away with the points and uses a non contact switch to achieve the "switching". I used to have an early system which was huge and very home made looking with a switch to choose between electronic or points (why?).

Anyway the point of my rambling is .....

Is it possible that we have the knowledge amongst us to make the device that Ruairidh has and Gary may want? I know some contributors to the forum are electrically competent, perhaps there exists some circuit plans for a suitable electronic switching device?

Steve.



p.s Talking with some Cornwall club members at the weekend the comment was made that at least mechanical or electro mechanical devices can be bodged back together at the roadside to keep you running. True electronic devices i.e those using transistors or I.C's can be very small especially if using surface mount technology and are often "potted" for reliability and environmental protection. this of course means that a roadside failure leaves you in the s....it. you need to consider carrying back up devices as spares etc. Whilst the points may be more likely to go wrong they can more readily be "fixed". Just something to consider?

Hi Gary

See initially - http://www.mgcars.org.uk/news/news552.html

There are other sites with information on fitting Electronic Ignition Systems to MG 'T' Types with Lucas DK series distributors ( I think 'T' types used DKH or DKY but they're similar in many ways to DK4's ) many of them in the USA. I'll go through my files and see if I can find them.

My only experience of E.I. was fitting a Luminition Optronic System to a Triumph TR7 I owned in the 1980's. From memory the points were replaced with a small beam emitting optical device, the beam being split by a fingered unit fitted in place of the rotor - was this the chopper? The transistors etc were housed in a small aluminium heat sink unit fitted within the engine bay, although presumably this could have been fitted anywhere out of site. It certainly improved the TR quite markedly although I think at the time it was quite an expensive mod.

Jeff.

Doesn't the Lucas 25D rotate the opposite way to an A7 distributor (either original or Bosch 009)? Might make it fun.

I'm currently working out how to make my electronic tachometer (hidden in an old Lucas case) work with a magneto. When I engineered the blower drive I didn't make a mechanical tacho take off (but I wish that I had.....)

Thanks

Charles

I've got a Bosch distributor in my RP Saloon. I fitted it after having months of problems with poor ignition & misfires. I had previously changed the plugs, the leads, the points, the condenser ans the Cap & rotor arm, all without any improvement.

I forked out the £65 from William McKenzie and the olg girl fired up first pull and hasn't missed a beat since. Dead easy to fit and doesn't look too out of place (apart from the green LT lead which I covered in a black shroud)

Austin Reproduction Parts: e-mail to: arpmckenzie@btinternet.com

I think that if I was contemplating the installation of "electronic ignition" in an Austin Seven, I would not be trying to "convert" a DK4A unit.

Why?

Well, at the risk of someone telling me that Joe Bloggs down the road has been selling them for years, I just don't think that easily installed units are available are available for a start.

And then, one needs to consider just what is the "magic cure-all" which an electronic conversion could be anticipated to provide.

The very real advantage that modern electronic conversion provides is that it eliminates the mechanical action of the points. (This means that the gradual drop off in performance arising out of gradual contact burning, which in turn gives rise to increased contact resistance, which gives rise to decreased primary coil current, which gives rise to less secondary induction and therefore reduced voltage being applied to fire the spark plugs.

(I am ignoring here the "half way" type of conversion which utlises the points as a low current firing source for the electronics)

It might be noted that provided the contacts are kept properly adjusted and cleaned,the performace of a conventional distributor and that of an electronically fired one is very much the same over the RPM range most Austineers would be contemplating.

It is true that a "Hall Effect" driven system (that is the now usual type "fired" by the use of the little toothed gismo which interrupts a magnetic field, rather than the use of contacts)is much more tolerant of a bit of "cam wobble" caused by worn drive shaft/bearings.

However, an electronic system will not overcome problems associated with worn out components in the automatic advance mechanism that lives down in the bowels of the distributor.

Now I would assert that the greatest problems encountered in DK4A distributors, apart from ordinary service items like Contact Breakers, Caps and Rotors, are created by duff advance mechanisms, for which spares are very thin on the ground. That problem will not be fixed by the use of an electronic ignition conversion. (I have never been able to understand why neither Clubs nor the Specialist Suppliers seem to have never sought to source and supply such vital after market parts.)

Thankfully, as the Reckless One has pointed out, some of our parts suppliers are able to provide modern manufacture Bosch Distributors (Bosch 009's I presume) which have the obvious advantage of sound shafts, a greatly improved advance mechanism, and readily available service parts.

So, if you feel that you need to go electronic, I am fairly confident that you could obtain a "Pertronics" or similar unit which would dovetail in nicely to the Bosch 009 unit.

I dont think that you would be all that likely to notice any real performance difference in an Austin Seven application between contact driven and electonic operation, unless you have a super tuned engine which you want to have optimised at really high RPM.

But the advantage that you would have from the electronically driven item is that you could forget contact cleaning and adjustemnt, at least until something goes wrong with the electronics.

Just to conclude, it is a fact that the engine doesn't "care" what brand/model of distributor is fitted to it. Provided you can arrange the drive an mountings to physically fit AND YOU ENSURE THAT THE ADVANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REPLACEMENT DISTRIBUTOR ARE REASONABLY COMPATIBLE WITH AUSTIN SEVEN REQUIREMENTS YOU SHOULD BE OK. BUT WHATEVER YOU DO MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOUR REPLACEMENT DISTRIBUTOR DOES NOT PROVIDE EXCESSIVE ADVANCE (ORIGINAL A7 SPECS MAX 8 DEGREES DISTRIBUTOR/16 DEGREES AT THE CRANKSHAFT)IF YOU USE A DISTRIBUTOR WITH EXCESSIVE ADVANCE YOUR DISTRIBUTOR PROBLEMS MAY PALE INTO INSIGNIFICANCE COMPARED WITH A CRANKSHAFT REPLACEMENT.

regards

Barry R.

Gary

Have you seen Jolley Engineering's advert in Classic and Sportscar? www.classicheads.com tel 01886 880101.

Might be of interest?

Steve

Have just found them on the web thanks Steve.Will put that one in my foavourites list.

I am glad I put the rider in my earlier post to the effect that someone would prove me wrong! (hi)

If you did determine to go ahead with a DK4A though, I still think it would be prudent to ensure that you have the auto advance gear brought right up to spec.

regards

Barry R.

Just a footnote to Reckless Rat's posting. Willie McKenzie - Austin Reproduction Parts, has a new email

ARPmCKenzie@hotmail.co.uk

See his advt in A7CA mag 2006D