Cor Engelen, on a recent visit, told me of his choice for an electronic replacement for the troublesome ignition points. Instead of the expensive Pertronix solution, he found a "small shop" solution at www.hot-spark.com. It was much less expensive, with perhaps some additional knowledge needed to make it work.
The tipping point for me came on this beautiful morning, when I captured this early-morning image of Beck TD. It seems bathed in light, doesn't it?
Little did I know that this was about to turn into a very frustrating day! I drove Beck on Route 30 on the way to the Grant Street Garage, just to further test the new rear gear installed in Part 34. On the way, I realized that Beck TD was actually not able to run well at higher RPMs - it bucked, snorted, and in general refused to go.
After a good bit of evaluation and introspection, I looked at brand new parts that I had just installed: ignition points and condenser. The points were already burned up! My guess is that the new condenser was bad. I cleaned up and reinstalled the old points and condenser, and went for a test drive.
I guess I didn't quite get those points tight, because on that drive they closed up and left me on the side of the road. Some nearby Good Samaritans helped me push Beck to the curb, and I reset the points by eye to limp back to Grant Street. However, even after carefully resetting the points and adjusting the timing with a good-quality timing light, the bad running persisted.
I bit the bullet and ordered the ignition system from Hot-Spark. Since they specify the Bosch blue coil, and also recommended using a large ballast resistor to protect the ignition module, I ordered that stuff too - total price was still under 100 bucks. I also corresponded with the site to ask whether my Auto Meter tachometer, just installed in Part 32, would still work. They specified a diode (an electronic component) installed in the line. I tested that and all was well, so I hid the diode in the existing line to the tach.
Before tackling the ignition installation, Troy Nace and I first installed the blue coil. It is indeed blue. Ignore the ugly resistor temporarily mounted on top - that was for testing. Troy and I later mounted it under the dash on a heavy piece of aluminum to help dissipate heat. Of course, I hadn't done the wiring yet in that picture.
We tried the new coil with the existing points, and I'm glad we did because the car wouldn't start! Some troubleshooting showed that the electrical contact point on the blue coil was far deeper down the socket than the no-name coil I was running on Beck. We got that straight, and then all was well. It seemed to me that with just the change to a higher-quality coil, the car was running better.
Then we installed the ignition module. It's an interesting bit of tech, using Hall Effect technology instead of the obsolete breaker points. It was not a plug-and-play installation. First I had to carefully enlarge the larger hole in the sensor mounting plate to fit over a shoulder on the mounting pin. For reference, a letter "R" drill was just the ticket. We then had to find and install a grommet for the wires exiting the distributor, cut off the existing connectors, and then wire them up to the coil. Here's the module installed in the distributor. The black ring on the center shaft is the "reluctor" which has magnets installed to trigger the Hall Effect sensor:
Both the instructions and Cor had warned that the distributor would need significant rotation to get the ignition timing in sync, and in Beck's case, I actually had to move the spark plug wires one plug clockwise to gain enough adjustment. But when all was well, it was just great! Here are the benefits we immediate observed in the shop and on an extensive test drive:
1. When setting timing, the timing mark no longer "jumped around," but was rock steady.
2. The car's idle speed was also rock solid, even when returning to idle after an extensive run.
3. Acceleration seemed to be improved.
4. A high-speed miss under power was cured.
This was a good day in the shop!
Continue on to Part 37....
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