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Triumph TR6 - Electronic Ignitions

Good Day Mateys

As I look through the various sales flyers from the well known suppliers, eveyone seem to have the best of best.

So I am reaching out to the BEST BBS to ask the question. What is the most reliable Electronic Ignition syste.

Thanks Les
lw gilholme

Sorry I can't offer any advice Les. I am a traditionalist with points and have no experience with electronic refits.

I have a parts car I will rebuild someday. My intent is to make it more performance oriented and will be doing things like electronic ignition, upgrade camshaft, weber or other carbs, etc.
Michael Petryschuk

I feel a component that is put in the dizzy is only a band aid.
I feel the best procedure is to use an electronic unit complete .
like this.



DNK

don

what make?
lw gilholme

Don, You still have that old thing?
db
Doug Baker

Yes I do Doug, nobody wants it.
It's not that old
Les, it's a mallory unilite
DNK

I can only relate my own experience, which is with Pertronix. I am running their modules in 3 vehicles, and their coil in one of those. I first went with their unit as a stopgap measure in my '56 Mercury M100, which has a period correct 312 Y-block engine. The distributor is way down in the back and has an oil fitting that never got oiled, resulting in the distributor bushing getting so worn that the points would not hold a consistent dwell. The Pertronix unit uses a relatively wide gap, and the engine runs so well I haven't bothered to rebuild the distributor. That was about a dozen years ago. Since then I installed one in the TR6, and my E-Type had one when I bought it. I have had no problems whatsoever, but I do keep points and condenser in the glovebox of each, as the return to stock is a 5 minute operation if needed. I've noticed that Pertronix seems to cause a bit of static on AM reception on older radios.

Tony
A. J. Koschinsky

If you go back and dig in the archives there were many discussion on the merits and demerits of various systems, some of them to the point of being somewhat heated. I'm not so sure that there is that much difference in reliability between the two basic types as much it might vary from manufacturer and even then be limited to an issue that came up in specific production runs. I think both Pertronix and Crane (a big player at the time) fell victim to that.

My own personal preference is for a Hall Effect unit like the Pertronix or even the Lucas Opus systems over the optical units such as the Crane. I'd have to go back and check, but I believe that Mallory also used optical systems.

The Pertronix essentially replaces the points and condenser and fires using the balance of your ignition system which for most users is standard old coil fired stuff. On of the beauties of an Hall Effect pick up is that it is nothing more than an induced break in an elctromagnetic field so there is very little to go wrong with the pick up mechanism itself. Downside, perhaps to the Pertronix is that unless they have changed it, you are restricted to running a Lucas rotor, I'm not aware of any aftermarket rotor that will fit in my TR6 with a Pertronix system.

The Lucas Opus systems on the other hand used a Hall Effect pick up, but then had an amplifier box that put the punch into the system. The problem was that for so many versions of it, the amplifier was mounted to the distributor and suffered the ill effects of excessive engine heat. Unless the car maker blew and put the systems with separate amplifier boxes in hot spots, those systems were much more reliable than the ones where the amplifier was mounted to the distributor such the MGB, 1500 Spridget and later 1500 Triumph Spitfires. Later replacement units for most distributor mounted amplifier systems were sold as distributor kits that had remote mounted amplifier boxes and a new distributor. Somewhere or another in my "inventory" of spares, I have a couple of these distributor kits with the remote amplifier boxes for the 1500 Spridget and 1500 Spitfires bought as NOS when a parts house in Fort Worth shut down many years ago.

The optical pick up systems use a light source (typically LED) and a light sensor as the pick up. Depending on the specific design of the system, there are either large areas that are solid in a "chopper wheel" with smaller corresponding openings that allow the light to pass which in turn triggers the ignition to fire. Other styles use "chopper wheels" with many slits and solid areas to keep track of the rotor position and then fire based on rotor position. I drove a 300ZX turbo for a while and it had one of those fine slit "chopper wheels" and IIRC what the specs were on it, there were 400 opening slits in that "chopper wheel."
SteveP1

I was thinking about the uk accuspark....comments
lw gilholme

Les, very similar to the Pertronix unit but looks to have a bit more clearance for the rotor.
SteveP1

This thread was discussed between 10/06/2015 and 16/06/2015

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