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Sorry. This might end up long. Electronic ignitions. SBC. I have posted on this topic a couple of times before.
Background: Started out with points system in my '26 T coupe. Points needed replaced at about 10K mile or so. OK. Pretty normal. With the difficulty and high price of obtaining good quality points and condensers, I decided to try a Pertronix. The kind with the whirling magnetic disc under the rotor. Worked fine for about 2-3K miles. Then started acting up. Rough idle/ backfiring. Went back to points until a buddy gave me a chinese RTR small cap HEI distributor. It has worked ok and got probably 5k miles on it. Problem with that RTR distributor is it is not adjustable for mech or vac advance. Set at 20 degrees for both. Made my engine ping if I wasn't careful. I rebuilt the engine and wanted to change the distributor out. Bought an RTR Summit small cap distributor. 15 miles later had to be towed home. Back in goes the chinese RTR distributor. Still not convinced, I bought another Pertronix. This time the Ignitor II lobe sensor model. I got it installed, got it running well enough to back out of the shop to continue the timing process without gassing myself. Backed it out, went to timing it. The idle started kind of fluttering, then the motor died. Would not start. Check spark. NO SPARK!!!. 5 minutes. I couldn't hardly believe it. So I like to keep my T coupe going all the time. Put the chinese RTR back in. Runs just fine for a couple days. Then yesterday I started it to leave in it and it is banging and popping and carrying on. I'm sure it has spark because it runs. Just very badly. I'm positive it is the ignition. Now I have to put together a points distributor just to get it running.
So what the heck is going on??? It must be the way I am holding my mouth. There are only 2 wires in the car's system going to the ignition system. The 12+ from ignition switch to coil and tach feed. It has a good heavy ground engine to frame.
An HEI won't fit due to firewall interference problems. So not an option. In one of my previous posts 57nomad posted info about converting a points distributor to chevy HEI. I really don't want to attempt this conversion myself. It looks like a science experiment. He also suggested a fella named Dave that does that conversion. I contacted him, but he is out of commission due to a brown recluse spider bite on his right hand.
I really would like to have an electronic ignition in this car (obviously, judging by how persistent I've been). But there's gotta be something wrong somewhere to cause 4 different ignition systems to go bad. I know....I am the only thing common to all 4 failures, but I really don't think it's me. Karma?
Somebody enlighten me, PLEASE!
Background: Started out with points system in my '26 T coupe. Points needed replaced at about 10K mile or so. OK. Pretty normal. With the difficulty and high price of obtaining good quality points and condensers, I decided to try a Pertronix. The kind with the whirling magnetic disc under the rotor. Worked fine for about 2-3K miles. Then started acting up. Rough idle/ backfiring. Went back to points until a buddy gave me a chinese RTR small cap HEI distributor. It has worked ok and got probably 5k miles on it. Problem with that RTR distributor is it is not adjustable for mech or vac advance. Set at 20 degrees for both. Made my engine ping if I wasn't careful. I rebuilt the engine and wanted to change the distributor out. Bought an RTR Summit small cap distributor. 15 miles later had to be towed home. Back in goes the chinese RTR distributor. Still not convinced, I bought another Pertronix. This time the Ignitor II lobe sensor model. I got it installed, got it running well enough to back out of the shop to continue the timing process without gassing myself. Backed it out, went to timing it. The idle started kind of fluttering, then the motor died. Would not start. Check spark. NO SPARK!!!. 5 minutes. I couldn't hardly believe it. So I like to keep my T coupe going all the time. Put the chinese RTR back in. Runs just fine for a couple days. Then yesterday I started it to leave in it and it is banging and popping and carrying on. I'm sure it has spark because it runs. Just very badly. I'm positive it is the ignition. Now I have to put together a points distributor just to get it running.
So what the heck is going on??? It must be the way I am holding my mouth. There are only 2 wires in the car's system going to the ignition system. The 12+ from ignition switch to coil and tach feed. It has a good heavy ground engine to frame.
An HEI won't fit due to firewall interference problems. So not an option. In one of my previous posts 57nomad posted info about converting a points distributor to chevy HEI. I really don't want to attempt this conversion myself. It looks like a science experiment. He also suggested a fella named Dave that does that conversion. I contacted him, but he is out of commission due to a brown recluse spider bite on his right hand.
I really would like to have an electronic ignition in this car (obviously, judging by how persistent I've been). But there's gotta be something wrong somewhere to cause 4 different ignition systems to go bad. I know....I am the only thing common to all 4 failures, but I really don't think it's me. Karma?
Somebody enlighten me, PLEASE!