Electronic ignition - fitting the Pertronix Ignitor
It took a while, but I found a "round tuit" at last. The Pertronics unit, also marketed as Aldon, is not hard to fit, so you don't need special information. I thought I'd do this page so you could see what went into the distributor and my earth lead solution.
First of all, the Ignitor itself fits pretty well, mine is the LU144 for the Lucas 45D4 distributor. Here is a familiar view of the points, with the main screw removed.
Removing the points shows 3 important features for the Ignitor base plate fitment:
It was supposed to retain the earth lead normally attached to the condensor mounting screw. However the tapped hole for this purpose is exactly occupied from underneath by the little pip used for tweaking the points:
It does have a slot milled for the pin which moves the sliding points, so no need to remove it. This makes refitting a pair of points straightforward if desired, and the sliding points mechanism will still work.
Now I could have removed the pip, as it is of limited use for adjusting the points; it always seems to be in the wrong place to get a screwdriver in! The problem with that is the pip locates the Ignitor baseplate, along with the main points screw. Without it, the thing would tend to slew around. The earth tag is too small to fit the main screw, and anyway I wanted that screwed firmly down without a squashy tag under it.
I decided to make another hole. Where though? At one edge of the base plate there is a cutaway part of the distributor plate - fitting a screw here would cause no problems:
I kept the original screw size. It is a fairly coarse thread, appears to be 6-32 UNC. I'll check that if I get the chance, but was delighted to find a tap among my odd collection:
Job's a good 'un! I did add a shake proof serrated washer.
Now if you want any chance at all of getting the wires back out of the grommet in the distributor side, then fit male spade connectors or something slim to the wires. Alternatively cut the connectors, but then you will need to fit more to put it back in. I like connectors I can unplug and re-use. I also used a small amount of silicone grease in the grommet. It doesn't attack plastics
Lastly, the magnet ring on mine appeared to rub on the base plate. Rather than rely on it riding higher when fitted, or wearing to fit, I made a shim washer to fit inside and lift the ring so it wouldn't rub. Only a couple of thou'. I didn't fancy sanding the bottom of the ring, it looks to be in 2 parts and I didn't want them separating because I had filed the joint away.
How does it run? Great :o) I am using the Flamethrower coil as mentioned elsewhere, with a 12v non ballasted supply from the fuse box. All the original wiring is retained. I did have to rotate the distributor anticlockwise a bit to get the timing right, at first the engine barely started, coughed, hesitated and farted horribly. A rough trial tweak of the dizzy had it running much better, and I used my timing light to get 10 degrees BTDC at idle.
Oh yes, and I later found where the ballast wire lives - behind the radio in the dash. Bunch of pink/white wire coiled up in there. Daft place to run a noisy coil supply wire hm?
Anyway, lots of miles on, and the Ignitor is still... igniting. Starts and runs well.
Reliant