[AT] conventional or electronic ignition

[Ken Knierim]

I've had one failure on an HEI... somewhere around 270Kmiles on that
unit, the wire broke off where it comes out of the magnetic pickup
(just like someone else mentioned).

I've always worried about having a module die so I keep a spare in my
toolbox (been there something like 20 years), and now I've got a spare
magnetic pickup in the shop. I usually inspect it when I have it open
to replace the cap and rotor. If you don't keep those maintained, you
can get arcing through the rotor. If you haven't also maintained the
nylon bushings on the centrifugal advance weights, it'll wear down the
pivot points too.

My brother put a V8 HEI on the distributor tester (with a power
supply) in high school auto shop and cranked it up. He had used solder
to connect the tower terminals together and set up an impromptu spark
gap to give the energy someplace to go. It melted the solder wire back
until it got to almost 3/4 of an inch before the spark found someplace
else to go... and it had a VERY respectable amount of fire and arc
from it. The breaker point unit in the same test just didn't come
close.

All-in-all, it's a big improvement over the breaker points, IMHO. Less
maintenance (NOT "Zero maintenance"!) and more consistent ignition.
Not great for engine speeds over 4000 RPM, but I don't run there a lot
anymore. And you can get parts for them most places.

After all, everything breaks, given enough time. I'm certainly broke
most of the time. :)

Ken in AZ

On 6/13/06, Ralph Goff <alfg at sasktel.net> wrote:
> I've heard of several local failures that left the person walking. One was
> my brother in a 79 Chev pickup that just quit one winter night on the way
> home. Had to be towed. The other was a friend last fall. 1980 GMC. Lucky he
> had a cell phone to call for help in the dark on an un travelled road. True,
> it was a 25 year old ignition system but it gave no warning, just quit like
> that.
>
> Ralph in Sask.