Powerspark electronic ignition conversion.
Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 5:43 pm
Hello all
I recently decided to give in & get rid of the points & condenser on the +2. This was a decision I?ve been putting off for a while now as I really like the ?fix em on the roadside? aspect of points if there?s a problem, not that I?d had many problems with them over the years, & had always questioned the point of pointless ignition. However, it seems that replacement points & indeed more so, condensers, are not what they once were, with points that needed fettling to fit & line up acceptably & with heels that wore down closing the gap in no time at all & condensers that failed with very little mileage, they don?t make em like they used to! So, what to fit? I looked at the replacement distributors available but was put off them from discussions I read on here suggesting that they were just generic advance curves not best suited to a twincam, so a simple trigger conversion to fit the original dizzy was the way to go for me. I started looking at what was available & what others had fitted & their experiences with them. Lumenition & Newtronic were mentioned in older threads but Aldon & Pertronix seemed to be most popular recently but with random possible problems with the original tacho. My friend John had been using an Aldon ignitor in his Elan for several years & was always bestowing it?s virtues & apart from erratic tacho behaviour was very happy with it so that looked like a good way to go. Then, somewhat coincidentally, his Aldon unit suddenly died & to get the Elan back up & running ASAP, he purchased a Powerspark conversion from ebay. On fitting this, he noticed no real difference from the Aldon except that his tacho was now behaving perfectly normally so he suggested that I also give one a try for my +2. Based on this, I ordered one & also opted to purchase one of their coils to go with it as the +2 still retained it?s ballast resistor system so had the wrong resistance & voltage coil fitted. I placed the order at about 4pm & it arrived in the post the very next morning, & all for less than ?40. Excellent! I removed the dizzy, replaced the points & condenser with the trigger & pick up, refitted the dizzy in roughly the right position & the car fired up instantly, a quick check with the strobe & that was that, the whole job done in about ? an hour. (Yes, I?ve worked out how to remove & replace the dizzy without removing the carbs, just the outer half of the airbox) The tacho is rock steady & reading the same as it always has, starting is instant, idle is a lot smoother & the little bit of a flat spot that was there has completely disappeared & overall the car feels just that little bit more perky. You may have gathered I?m very pleased with it, so much so, that as I see they also do them for just about every distributor you can think of, including the Lucas 18D2 fitted to many British motorcycles, & in positive or negative earth, I think I?ll treat my Norton Dominator to one as well. You can check them out here http://www.simonbbc.com
Regards, Tim
I recently decided to give in & get rid of the points & condenser on the +2. This was a decision I?ve been putting off for a while now as I really like the ?fix em on the roadside? aspect of points if there?s a problem, not that I?d had many problems with them over the years, & had always questioned the point of pointless ignition. However, it seems that replacement points & indeed more so, condensers, are not what they once were, with points that needed fettling to fit & line up acceptably & with heels that wore down closing the gap in no time at all & condensers that failed with very little mileage, they don?t make em like they used to! So, what to fit? I looked at the replacement distributors available but was put off them from discussions I read on here suggesting that they were just generic advance curves not best suited to a twincam, so a simple trigger conversion to fit the original dizzy was the way to go for me. I started looking at what was available & what others had fitted & their experiences with them. Lumenition & Newtronic were mentioned in older threads but Aldon & Pertronix seemed to be most popular recently but with random possible problems with the original tacho. My friend John had been using an Aldon ignitor in his Elan for several years & was always bestowing it?s virtues & apart from erratic tacho behaviour was very happy with it so that looked like a good way to go. Then, somewhat coincidentally, his Aldon unit suddenly died & to get the Elan back up & running ASAP, he purchased a Powerspark conversion from ebay. On fitting this, he noticed no real difference from the Aldon except that his tacho was now behaving perfectly normally so he suggested that I also give one a try for my +2. Based on this, I ordered one & also opted to purchase one of their coils to go with it as the +2 still retained it?s ballast resistor system so had the wrong resistance & voltage coil fitted. I placed the order at about 4pm & it arrived in the post the very next morning, & all for less than ?40. Excellent! I removed the dizzy, replaced the points & condenser with the trigger & pick up, refitted the dizzy in roughly the right position & the car fired up instantly, a quick check with the strobe & that was that, the whole job done in about ? an hour. (Yes, I?ve worked out how to remove & replace the dizzy without removing the carbs, just the outer half of the airbox) The tacho is rock steady & reading the same as it always has, starting is instant, idle is a lot smoother & the little bit of a flat spot that was there has completely disappeared & overall the car feels just that little bit more perky. You may have gathered I?m very pleased with it, so much so, that as I see they also do them for just about every distributor you can think of, including the Lucas 18D2 fitted to many British motorcycles, & in positive or negative earth, I think I?ll treat my Norton Dominator to one as well. You can check them out here http://www.simonbbc.com
Regards, Tim