Electronic Ignition

[jlan1978]

Hi All

I am looking to fit my Sprint with an Electronic Ignition. I've been warned around cheap unreliable parts etc.
Anyone have a suggestion on what to buy and who from?
Also what to avoid?

Thanks
Joe

[10yearsafter]

Check out H&H Ignition, Brierley Hill West midlands. you will have to send the dizzy to them. everything is in the dizzy = very neat
No real mileage test but the engine is sharp. open the plugs to 30 thou. but they are very helpful.

Bob

[jlan1978]

I ended up going with the 123 system.
Excellent so far the car behaves more like a modern car in terms of starting ticking over etc

[Malsprint]

JIan. There are quite a few posts on here about the 123 system but most of them are quite old. Since you are the most recent post could you share the process for fitting the 123.
Including: 1)do you need an adapter to fix the distributor to the engine block. If so where did you get one. 2) Does the rev counter still work. 3) what did you do about the ballast resistor. Thanks.

[dursley92]

I went with Pertronix after a couple of Lumenition failures and have been very pleased with it.
Only problem is the one you need for the 44D dizzy is hard to find now.

[ClassicFan]

From personal experience I would not have another 123 distributor. Mine let me down at the roadside and they were (at the time) non repairable. I now simply use a Powerspark kit https://simonbbc.com/ and carry the points in the car so if the electronic ever fails (non have over several cars and the past 7+ years) I can simply put the points back in (takes minutes) and get home instead of sitting at the roadside for hours awaiting recovery.......

[B8WLY]

Hi

There is a recent thread named "Sprint Ignition" which has some useful information, pictures and peoples views.

Personally I would go 123, but that's just my opinion.

Cheers

Richard.

[Carledo]

For what it's worth, my opinion is there is only one EI system I would not use under any circumstances on a Sprint and that's the Lumenition Magnetronic, i've had too many failures of them to ever trust one again. I don't know exactly WHY they don't like Sprints, maybe as simple as the heat of position, but they just don't seem suitable.

Of the other regular EI systems, i've had lots of success with using the SimonBBC (and other almost identical systems) cheapos but these need a different dizzy cap, rotor and leads to work properly. I've only fitted a single Lumenition Optronic but it works lovely. Of the others I couldn't say as no experience.

But the 123 towers head and shoulders above all the others for your ability, not present in other systems, to control and adjust the advance curve, taking the old fashioned and unreliable-in-old-age bobweights and springs out of the equation. If you want the best, it's the 123 or some sort of homebrewed EDIS/megajolt.

Design constraints preclude the removal of the slant distributor entirely as it connects the jackshaft to the (somewhat essential) oil pump drive, so you might as well use it to distribute the spark to the correct cylinders, if nothing else! Which to me, makes the 123 the right choice.

Steve

[Ralph]

From personal experience I would not have another 123 distributor. Mine let me down at the roadside and they were (at the time) non repairable. I now simply use a Powerspark kit https://simonbbc.com/ and carry the points in the car so if the electronic ever fails (non have over several cars and the past 7+ years) I can simply put the points back in (takes minutes) and get home instead of sitting at the roadside for hours awaiting recovery.......

Another vote here for the Powerspark kit. I have one of their electronic distributors in my TR3 for the last 3 years, also fitted one to my Austin A35, and bought a conversion module for my Vitesse dizzy. No problems, but you must match the module to the coil you are using.
I carry a spare module in the TR because I never had an original dizzy for the baseplate and points, but have not needed it (yet!)
Ralph