Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I have a bit of experience with the electronic ignition in other cars. It works well in the 12 volt cars I have owned, but I didn't like the look of the non-authentic coil and wiring. However the Packard is another story. If the Packard is unreliable that may be a reason to switch to electronic ignition. However based on what others have reported, the reliability may be worse rather than better. When the electronic ignition fails you get a tow truck (that happened to me twice). At least the points are understandable and can be fixed.

All - Thanks for your insights and I'll not install electronic ignition on my 6v car. It sounds so logical why it would be inviting disaster.

A properly set up points and condenser ignition will work fine for many thousands of miles before requiring any adjustment or servicing. Especially with the limited number of miles most of us drive our Packards.

I remember reading an article many, many years ago about the then NASCAR racers. The person interviewed said they did extensive modifications to the inside of the engine, carburation, and exhaust; but ran with the stock ignition systems (with modified advance curves). He said the stock ignition system provided more than sufficient spark for the modified engines, and were dependable.

(o[]o)

Here is what I love about points. My high mileage 58 Champion started getting skippy as I ran her up in 2nd and would sometimes miss a little on a hill. But all in all, not bad. Had never looked in the distributor because of the always easy starting.

Decided to have a look today and discovered:
Points almost worn away on the arm side.
Cam dry and the advance sticking.
Condenser so old the lead was brittle.
Insulation falling off the lead to the points.
And a host of non-electric illnesses including a dead vacuum advance.
And it still ran and performed OK for a big car with a really small engine.

I am not familiar with the Petronix e-ignition system.
Does the Petronix retain the ignition points or does it completely eleminate the ignition points????

Since there are claims of better and faster starts and smoother running with Petronix i assume that means the ignition points are eleminated. But i don't really know. Humor me. I think we are on something here.

I've been involved with Packards, both 6- and 12-volt, that had both Pertronix and regular points at one time or another in the same vehicle. The 6-volt folks have switched back to points for faster and more reliable starts. Can't say there was any difference at all in how smooth they ran, or in accelertion, assuming both were properly timed. About the only difference I would expect is that, as points gradually wear, the timing begins to shift a bit and with Pertronix the timing remains unchanged as you accumulate miles.

Pertronix eliminates the points in favor of an electronic pickup.

ok. So pertronix eleminates the points.

I'll cut to the chase:

ASSUMING that claims of better starts and smoother running are fact then such improvements are not due to ANY eng'ring with regard to e-ignition whatsoever. Rather the e-igniton is making up for worm distributor bushings.

That is to say, that the e-ignition is not affected by any wobbling of the shaft due to wear whereas points ARE.

What i am not sure of here is whether or not Pertronix or any other e-iginition specifies and aire gap between the stator and pickup. Even if such air gap is specified then most likely the allowable min/max air gap specification variation is very large tolerance compared to what is allowable for points settings.

Or to put it another way:

The e-ignition is simply a bandaid to overcome a symptom of another underlying problem of worn distributor bushings.

As a side note:
There are e-ignition systems that do retain the ignition points but only pass very tiny current thru the points.

Looking at a Pertronix video, they use a magnet ring on some later Delco distributors so that must work a Hall effect sensor. Will guess that might be typical of all their units. The air gap for the Delco demonstrated is given as .010 to .060 so if that spec is typical, unless bushing is really bad wobble probably wouldn't be much of an issue.

THanks HH56 for the research on the air gap for -e-ignition.

Therefore, any claims of better performance is strictly the result of overcoming the symptom of worn distributor bushings.

Lets look back at post #6 and #10 by Tobbs and Packard49 on the 1st page of this thread. Trigger voltage for the e-ignition is about 5.2 volts. That is based on a variety of sources including this forum.

However, it begs the question:
For e-ignition kits supposedly made for SIX volt systems then why isn't such a kit designed for something like 2.5 or maybe 3 volts trigger voltage instead of retaining the trigger spec for 12 volt systems????? I've never been able to get an answer to that question and i'm not exactly an EE so i havn't got a clue.