Electronic ignition kit

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Dick
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Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:31 pm

Electronic ignition kit

#1 Post by Dick » Sun May 31, 2020 6:48 pm

Hi chaps, my brother has an automatic 1300 vdp princess with ignition problems. Can someone recommend an electronic ignition kit that would fit and preferably cheap as he's a skinflint ;)
Thanks in advance :scared:

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JPB
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:24 pm

Re: Electronic ignition kit

#2 Post by JPB » Mon Jun 01, 2020 12:23 am

My first port of call would be to ask a mini specialist for a price to buy a good used electronic distributor from a 1300cc Metro and swap its distributor drive for the offset D type from the ADO16. Paddock spares sell the cheap (£0.06 each for orders of 100 or more from China, £22 for one from Paddock), this being the Britpart module that scored amazingly well when I tested several, mostly far more costly systems and replacement distributors, in the college workshops before I had to give up being a wage slave.
The Britpart setup displayed remarkably low levels of scatter compared to all bar the top of the range "123" programmable distributor and even that could only match the sixpenny wonder from China, the test specimen of which is still working to this day, but no longer in a 43D4 out of a Reliant kitten. The unit is now doing its thing in a Marina 1300 engine that lives in a Minor Traveller.

I've tried to find the Chinese manufacturer's site, but the fact that I can't remember their name isn't helping and I'm somewhat puggled after a busy day behind the wheel of the van. I shall keep on looking but please, no holding of the breath as I may be some time!
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

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gazza82
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Re: Electronic ignition kit

#3 Post by gazza82 » Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:51 am

I know a lot of my Austin colleagues use Accuspark products ..
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

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JPB
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Re: Electronic ignition kit

#4 Post by JPB » Mon Jun 01, 2020 6:57 pm

gazza82 wrote:
Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:51 am
I know a lot of my Austin colleagues use Accuspark products ..
The trouble with these is that they come with no way of knowing what the original spec of the distributor was, so getting the right advance curve is a matter of pot luck, unless you remove the electronic stuff and build it up into an original distributor to suit the engine. I've also come across Accuspark units that were far more worn than the original one being replaced! The last time somebody insisted that I replace a perfectly good 23D4 (like a 25 but no vac capsule) on a later Rebel 750 van, the old unit was replaced the next day with fresh points, a Sovcom Teflon capacitor whose value matched the original Lucas condenser and a new set of weights. That's still running and that's not something that we can claim for many of the local ones these days, the Accuspark units are mostly for BMC engines, but the generic advance characteristics can be anywhere between annoying and impossible to time correctly, even between these. Imagine fitting a distributor from an original 803cc A engine into a 1071S, A curve that suits an engine which will rarely see the far side of 5000 rpm isn't really going to be the best idea for one that's often capable of 8k+.
Another storage tenant took it upon himself to write to the good folk who were responsible for the Accushark brand at the time, even offering them a copy of how to find the curve details in the casing of the distributor complete with the correct curve for pretty much any and every engine that ever used Lucas distributors. They did write back, but that reply did them no favours and I'll let it be at that!
:evil:
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

GHT
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Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:09 pm

Re: Electronic ignition kit

#5 Post by GHT » Tue Jun 02, 2020 5:49 am

Dick wrote:
Sun May 31, 2020 6:48 pm
Hi chaps, my brother has an automatic 1300 vdp princess with ignition problems.
Serves him right for having an ADO16. Sorry I can't help but I do have an idea.
The Austin 1100 version of the ADO16 appeared in the Fawlty Towers episode "Gourmet Night", in which the short-tempered owner of Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty, gave it a "damn good thrashing." Might be worth a try.

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