Reply To: Petronix

[Gregory Long]

Electronic ignition became normal when emissions requirements caused car manufacturers to try to run engines very lean. A lean mixture is difficult to ignite, so a much hotter spark was needed. Even before emissions requirements, regular points and condensers needed to be at least checked every ~12,000 miles, And often needed new points and or condenser at roughly 20,000 miles.

The Government came up with a 55,000mile required ‘must pass’ emissions standard, and this meant that the car had a warrantee for tuneups, spark plugs, points/condenser/cap/wires and all the fussy emissions fuel system add-ons that were needed before our very effective catalytic converters that we have now.

The car manufacturers scrambled to create an ignition system that would last far past the 55,000 mandated emissions warrantee. Our modern ignition systems are pretty much 100,000 mile trouble free, except for some of the one coil per spark plug per cylinder systems that tend to have coil failures way too often, like Ford V8 engines a few years ago. I think heat damages the individual coils because they are in or on the engine.

The Hi-Energy ignition systems required better spark plug wires, this is where the silicone rubber 9mm diameter wires came from.

I’m not completely against an aftermarket point replacement ignition system, but I can get just about any point/condenser system running. But I have no way to check or repair an electronic ignition system when it strands me on the side of the road. Only a backup ignition system or a set of points and condenser are prudent to have on hand.

A properly set up ignition system will be every bit as reliable as any modern system, it just needs periodic inspection and maybe adjustment.

I’ve NEVER been left stranded by points or a condenser or coil.. I have been left stranded by a failed fuel pump, a brass carburetor float that age-cracked and filled with gas and sank in the carb bowl, flooding the engine.

I have been left stranded by flat tires and a flat spare or no jack or lug wrench, and by running out of gas, with no spare fuel can available.. These times I’ve had to leave my car and walk were all preventable if I’d been doing my job properly as the owner and driver of the car.

One problem with the type of system that Scott is using is that the much lower amperage through the points sometimes causes the points to be unable to burn through a very slight layer of condensation, or oil film, or even a finger print. I’ve messed with some early aftermarket systems using the original points, and had quite a few problems, but also, had some that worked flawlessly.

On the AACA forum there is a discussion about the Pertronix system just about every month. I’ll make a rough estimate from those discussions that the Pertronix system is about 90-95% reliable. But this is on 12v negative ground systems. I don’t know how reliable a 6v positive ground system might be.

Dave’s observation that 5.9v is required to fire the Pertronix system makes me think that somehow I’d want to have a way to fire the Pertronix setup with a 9v drycell battery, then switch to the car’s 6v system to run down the road.. but that’s just more complication and more to go wrong.

Greg Long