Lumention Ignition - Which bit breaks?

[terryp]

So why doesn't everyone fit Lumention?????? I've heard of lots of problems with 123 or whatever it is?

[69S4]

So why doesn't everyone fit Lumention?????? I've heard of lots of problems with 123 or whatever it is?

Can't speak for others but I've stuck with points as they've been trouble free over the 30yrs I've owned the car. Once adjusted they've usually kept their setting and any checking or replacing has been when I've got the carbs off or doing something else to the engine so there's been minimal additional effort. I know "minimal" isn't zero but I keep hearing about other peoples problems with add-on aftermarket systems (both car and motorcycle) and I'm not sure I want to (potentially) buy into problems.

[bast0n]

Stuart - you are one lucky chap!!

When I had points and went on long continental trips, Alps and all, by the time I had done about 1000 very hard miles, the points got a small build up on them and to retain tune I had to regularily sand of the contacts to get them smooth. The loss of power was very noticeable.

20 plus years of Lumenition and no problems since.............

Don't grow up too quickly...

David

[andyhodg]

Hi All

I must be unlucky. I had Luminition on my +2 and after a long period of inexplicable failures (the engine would just stop and after a short pause I could restart it) the electronic module packed up totally. I have been running with standard points ever since.

The moral of the story is carry a set of points etc to get the car going if your electronics pack up.

Andy

[Jason1]

So why doesn't everyone fit Lumention?????? I've heard of lots of problems with 123 or whatever it is?

Because the little silver box is ugly. Most of the people I speak to that have not used the optical system the reason is because they wanted the car to look original. I know one guy that fitted the Magnetic system after I told him the magnets fly off; one week in and car broke down magnets had detached. His garage said they had never had a problem with them before! They fitted a replace unit and sent the broken one back and he has been driving it for at least 4 years now without problem. So maybe it was a bad batch of glue?

I'll stick to the ugly silver box.

Jason

[69S4]

Hi All

I must be unlucky. I had Luminition on my +2 and after a long period of inexplicable failures (the engine would just stop and after a short pause I could restart it) the electronic module packed up totally. I have been running with standard points ever since.

The moral of the story is carry a set of points etc to get the car going if your electronics pack up.

Andy

Exactly! All I've done is cut out the middle man

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of technological luddite who's convinced that because I can't see the electricity flowing down the wire it must be the work of dark forces. I'm very happy with the factory original electronic systems on our modern cars and on most of my bikes and I've no desire to try and retro-fit points to them. I just have a feeling that some of the aftermarket ignition systems are not quite as robustly developed as they might be. The failure rate on something you buy at great expense to replace a simple mechanical switch should be as close to zero as makes no difference, with a lot of design thought gone into protecting against "operator error". A glance through the posts here will throw up all sorts of tales of electronic ignition failure and it just seems like Russian Roulette whether you get a good one or not.

I suppose we ought to be grateful that when the units fail it doesn't actually hurt us (unless it stops when you're turning in front of a cement lorry); I read over on a classic bike site the tale of someone who snapped his achilles tendon when his BSA kicked back. He was trying to start it after a few weeks off and the battery had run down. The aftermarket electronic ignition unit defaulted to full advance when the battery voltage dropped below around 11v. It wasn't a fault, it was designed like that

[terryp]

I'll stick to the ugly silver box.
Jason

I find mine quite attractive perched on top of the pedalbox!

[oillite]

The only proplem that I have had is when I made the mistake and used the Lucas points screw which is made from high tensile putty, sheared and let the optic unit hit the shutter, but that was over 25 years ago!

[Sea Ranch]

[/quote]I read over on a classic bike site the tale of someone who snapped his achilles tendon when his BSA kicked back. [/quote]

Oh, my. I have a friend who "ruptured" his achilles tendon. This is not a pretty thing. Long recovery . . .

[ceejay]

Pertronix Igniter has been delivering a hot spark to the twink for well over
a decade now and never missed a beat... sure beats fiddling with points.
Col