Re: more questions about my elec.ign swap

[Doug Ahern <D170A833@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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On 43 04/13/05, Robert neal zimmerman wrote:
>  OK, hers acouple rwsponses- Doug u said u doubted that switching to
>  electronic ign would give me better mileage or reliability- why would
>  anybody use it then? Then what is its advantage?

quite a statement, eh?  lemme explain...

breaker-less ignition (or electronic ignition) was, no doubt, an
advancement of technology over its predecessor, breaker-point ignition.
At the time breaker-less ignition was put into production (running change
on 1971 340's with manual transmissions;  1972: standard on all V8
models sold in California, extra cost option in other states and
other models, and *standard* across the board on all 1973 models),
the traditional points style ign. was considered very reliable and, 
except for the points themselves, all components of the point-style 
ign. (i.e. the condenser, the ballast resistor, and the coil) were
considered to have become reliable enough to last the life of the 
car.  big exception, eh?  the points themselves!  these are, of course, 
a wear item and, to make it worse, as they wear, the dwell changes! 
Plus there is a slight but continuous change in ignition timing over 
the life of the points,  as the contact gap closes, the time actually 
retards....  enter electronic ignition, i.e. "breaker-less ignition". 
Chrysler replaced the one wear item on ignition (the points) with a 
reluctor and pickup that never wear, and thus the dwell and timing 
don't change as the engine racks up miles.   

well, thats pretty much the sales pitch to move to Electronic Ignition..
(hmm?  didn't I, in an earlier, email say that elec. ign. wasn't going
to improve reliability and mileage?)... ?!?! 

While I stand by my statement, let me qualify at least half of it. that
half being the reliability half...   On Neal's 273, with a good points
distributor and a new set of points (i.e. a serviced ignition),  spark
will be delivered to the spark plugs no more frequently and no less
frequently, and with no lesser a degree of accuracy than a electronic
ignition.  hotter spark is a function of your coil, not your ignition
system.     And mileage is fuel efficiency.  If your dwell is correct 
and your timing is correct,  then the ignition type, breaker-point or
breaker-less, is of little influence.

do cars run better when a points-style ignition is replaced with 
an electronic ignition?  well... quite often, yeah, and quite often
it is the case that the points either needed adjustment or replacing,
or the car gets plugs wires and a new cap and rotor, which the old
point ignition may have been begging for for years..!

Is electronic ignition advanced technology over point-style?
absolutely (thats twice I said it in this email, I don't want anyone
thinking that Georgia summer sun has effected my brain cells,,
adversely, at least).  Does elec. ign. work?  yeah, it works great.
will dwell and timing change as the engine racks up miles.,,, nope!

remember than when Chrysler sold new cars in 1973, all car being
purchased were expected to work hard, day in day out,   most of us have
much lower expectations and put a fraction of the miles on our old
mopars compared to when they were new.  So part of my position is,
that as long as Neal isn't going to press his Coronet into 100mile 
a day daily drivership,  points will suffice for a stock 273 B-body.

points do have their advantages. although they tend to wear out,
they rarely, if ever, flat out fail...  unlike an ECU.  and points
can run on low voltage, if your alternator stops charging, you can 
drive for hours on points,,  an ECU will drop out below 10-11 volts.    

more reliable?  for 14 of the last 18 years, I've driven a points style
ignition car everyday to work (64 Olds and now a 64 Dart) and the
ignition has never failed...  points gets changed when plugs get
changed, pretty simple.

Neal, if I were you, if the 273 runs good, replace the points and be 
done with it.  focus on more outstanding issues and come back to the 
ignition later.   Unless this thing is going to be a 20K mile a year car,
you won't have to think about the ignition for quite sometime.

PS:  the ECU is sometimes called a 'brain box',  this is a real
misnomer.  the ECU has an much brains as a voltage regulator or
even a horn relay!  in fact, it acts very much like a voltage 
regulator, in many ways.  its a switch that opens and closes a
ground signal to the coil's negative post based on the precisely timed
signals coming from the pickup in the distributor. no brains.

oh well...  [ramble mode off]

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