Morris Minor Owners Club

I'm thinking of fiting electronic ignition.

What are the pros and cons?

Points are easy to fix, but wear out.

Electronic is more efficient gives more power. but if it fails your stuffed.

How about carrying a spare base plate points set up and all, so that I can switch them over quickly by the road side?

I understand Aldon is cheap at the moment thanks to the strong pound if you buy direct from the States.

Any obsevations/comments welcome.


Roger

Exactly, the electronic ignition is more efficient and an improvement when it is working. If it fails then, as you say you are stuffed unless you carry the equipment to revert to the original system to get you out of trouble. It is easy to carry a spare rotor arm,condensor, and points
etc. less common to carry a spare electronic kit. The only failure I have had in the past twleve years was a faulty condensor which took ten minutes to replace and cost very little.

I had the electronic distributor fail on a 1.3 Montego.
I ended up fitting a points distributor, off an Ital, just to get it going - and left it that way for over 100,000 miles !
My opinion is fit electronic but keep the parts to revert back to points if necessary in the car.
What about the basic Lumenition system -
http://www.lumenition.com/new/main.php/magnet/

Paul Humphries

Makes sense to carry the original bits in your spares kit but I'm a big fan of the Magnetronic system - I fitted it quite a few years ago and the only breakdowns I've had since are due to the points in the fuel pump!

the only breakdowns I've had since are due to the points in the fuel pump

Fit a Hardi pump. They are electronic (no points).

That will be another item which you cannot repair when it goes wrong then. At least you can hit the original pump and generally get it going again.

Tempting to fit all this stuff, but one reason for running a minor must surely be it's ability to be kept going while others check into a garage!

Garage????????? Garage???????????????
I remember. That is where you go get an M.O.T.

And your electronics fixed!

Hello Roger,

for a car like the Minor which does not require a high performance igniton system I would say that electronic ignition will not giev any appreciable gain. Points do wear out, but very slowly.

I'm puzzled about the Aldon reference as they are a British company based in Birmingham?

Alec

Aldon are British, but you can buy the same unit from the states from a company called PerTronix I understand that they deliver it from the UK (its probably made abroad!) I am waiting for a confirmation of the price from them by email.

http://www.vintageperformance.com/retrorockets/

EDIT email just arrived $83 including postage I make that only just over £40 and they confirmed delivery as 3-4 days from the UK

Hello Roger,

OK, I have heard of Pertronix as I regularly vist an American forum (British car forum) where this is a popular modification.
Certainly the Aldon unit is very neat and gives no visible indication that you have changed to electronic.

Alec

LES, exactly, the Minor has 'electrics' not electronics. The discussion going on re the FORD ECU troubles elsewhere illustrates the potential
'electronic'problems which can disable a car. If my modern car plays up there is nothing I can do. For the Minor a hammer and a knife and fork will probably do the job!

Willie wrote:LES, exactly, the Minor has 'electrics' not electronics. The discussion going on re the FORD ECU troubles elsewhere illustrates the potential
'electronic'problems which can disable a car. If my modern car plays up there is nothing I can do. For the Minor a hammer and a knife and fork will probably do the job!

I agree 100% with that.
Our familly Chrysler has an immobiliser.
The key fob isn't available new any more so only option is either secondhand (they go for around £100 in good condition) or a bypass unit (£120).
The other day ours failed and the car was stranded as there is no way of getting it started without a working key fob.
Luckilly it was only the batteries but I'm going to fit a bypass unit asap as I don't feel comfortable with the factory immobilier any more.
At least I've got the Minor as a reliable back up

Paul Humphries.

RogerRust wrote:Aldon are British, but you can buy the same unit from the states from a company called PerTronix I understand that they deliver it from the UK

Sounds like an odd arrangement. What about the VAT?

Its not imported Its actually shipped from a warehouse here so I don't think that the revenue will spot the lack of VAT unless we tell them! I might just wait for the pound to top two dollars again and buy then!

I never really had a problem with the points on the 1098 engine, although I found setting them a bit tedious, but doing 15k a year means an awful lot of services, and an awful lot of point setting.

On the 1275 I found that the heel wore off the points with incredible rapidity, and that I was having to set them increasingly frequently (they'd do about 1.5k, then about 500miles and then it would just go rapidly downhill), so the electronic ignition went in. I can't say as I went far with it though. The engine ran sweetly with it but I've taken Rebecca off the road for some engine work - and I have no money to work on the engine

I'm with the people that stick to the original ignition system (points).

When all these electronic systems start to give you bother (by the road side), then all you can do is phone for recovery (or overflow your boot space with more spares than a supplier. Instead of the normal small couple of boxes in the glove compartment, spare points, condenser, rotor arm and in the boot, spare leads and cap, fuel pump, coil, tools. OH Help!!!!! the bloody list could be HUGE!. Think I'll get myself a van and employ a driver to follow me round with all my get home parts, when I'm out driving around in the Minor). However, if you enjoy throwing money at a garage, then thats your choice. But I for one just gets fed up when my other so called modern cars give problems with their electronic management systems having to go to a garage to diagnose the fault, then they had you the bill that on many occasions would be enough money to help finance another classic project.

Electronics Ignition systems have no Business being in a Minor. Keep It Original....IMO.

AIUI these electronic ignition kits that fit inside the distributor simply replace the mechanical points with a contactless equivalent. Everything else remains the same (unless you decide to also fit a higher performance coil). They're a very simple switching device, nothing like the computerised engine management units you get in modern cars, and they're not susceptible to wearing out like points are. Even if they were to go wrong, it wouldn't be difficult to carry a spare set of mechanical points and condenser with you as a backup. No need to get a garage involved.

Sounds like an odd arrangement. What about the VAT?

Its all included in the price and is all above board and yes they make the units that go in the Aldon kit and Aldon put them in their own packaging with quite a mark-up.