Electronic ing conversion ?

[Btroy]

Hi guys, back again. I attempted to fire up my 53 after I renewed it. Points were replaced but the wires burnt. I want to convert to pertronix but my dist has a vacuum advance. Do I eliminate that as well?

[gmwillys]

Btroy,

Leave the vacuum advance installed. Take the time to check the springs and weights for proper movement, spray a little penetrant to loosen the action. The Pertronix will be a nice upgrade. Let us know what you think after the install. I received a cabinet years ago that was a store display chalked full of points and condensers. I carry at least one spare set within everything that I own with points. In short, I haven't tried the electronic ignition conversion kits, but they look like a good mod.

[Btroy]

There is a problem with that, there is noway to keep the vacuum advanced installed as there is no provision to connet the vacuum pod to the points plate that was removed. I will try it without and report back. Thanks for your reply

[gmwillys]

I'm following now. I couldn't find any exact instructions for this particular application. I wonder if there is a Pertronix set up that utilizes the vacuum advance? I'll have to look into it.

It will be interesting to learn how the lack of vacuum will effect the drivability. I know on the derby cars and race cars, we would tack the advance to where it was at full advance, all the time. A 134 will run alright at idle, and throughout the range will work too. It's when you jam on the throttle that you will notice a lag in performance.

[51 CJ3]

I am not running vacuum advance on the CJ3A. It seems to run fine even when stepping on it. I am using the electronic ignition distributor replacement KW sells.

[LarrBeard]

Here is an electronic ignition story only casually related to the subject, but interesting.

The wife and I were sitting in a doctor's office and believe it or not, in addition to the ladies magazines, there were a bunch of John Deere collector magazines - Guy Magazines! One writer told the story that he put an electronic ignition on his old John Deere and even though it had always started well with the original ignition, it wouldn't start with the new electronic one. But, it would start right away with a pull start.

It took a bit of hair pulling, but it turned out that when the tractor was cranking, the battery voltage dropped below the voltage that the electronic ignition needed to operate. I don't recall if the writer ever got the electronic ignition to work on the John Deere.

[gmwillys]

I would imagine that the John Deere had a ballast resistor installed, dropping voltage down when the starter was used. That's why it started when being pull started. Magnitos on the earlier JDs were pretty bullet proof. You didn't need battery voltage to keep running.

[Btroy]

Still working on this but have an issue when cranking, if I go from ground to the positive side of coil I see 12v while cranking. If I measure between the pos and negative post on the coil I get 0 volts. Current not getting spark. Maybe a bad new coil? This is a coil I received with the alternator I am converting to 12v.
Coil reading are primary 3.5 and secondary are 11,500 ohms

[gmwillys]

The primary coil reading is on the high side at 3.5 ohms. It should be at 1.6 ohms on a 12 volt system. The secondary side is well within spec at 11,500 ohms. I would replace the coil, because the secondary side isn't getting the voltage it needs from the primary to the high side. Also, I would clean the points of any corrosion at the contacts. My wagon has a SBC, and every year when pulling it out of storage, that would be the first thing I would have to do. I would turn over fine, but no spark. The coil is as old as the hills, but checks out good.