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Electronic ignition

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radibob

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The PO of my 66 spridget included an Allison electronic ignition module in the box of "spares" he gave to me. No where does it indicate whether it is pos or neg ground. I called Crane and they have no idea.
It has one number on it 25706 for what that's worth Anyone out there have one of these or know if it will work with pos ground.
 
I don't know about this unit--but, is it complete? Do you know for sure if it's even working? Does it use an optical or magnetic sensor, or does it trigger off the existing points? If the latter, it's probably pretty old. There has been a lot of improvement in the technology since the early days of electronic ignitions, so it might be a good idea to invest a hundred bucks and get a new, modern one. The lack of information on this old unit might be an indication that it's probably not wise to use it.
 
I've run across Allison electronic ignition back in the 80's. They were one of the many brands that came out shortly after all the TR7 and MGB ignition systems began to fail. Allison was a low cost solution and had it's own failure rate. Pirahana was another, of reasonable quality. Luminition was of much better quality and always worked. I always installed Luminition on my customer's cars. Don't get me wrong, Allison is a good enough unit. But there are better things out there.
 
Good advice i think. I'm a sucker for period equipment, so I thought it would be fun to make this one work. Probably not at the cost of a breakdown though and with Moss selling Pertronix for less tham a hundred bucks, i think I'll go that way.
 
radibob said:
I'm a sucker for period equipment, so I thought it would be fun to make this one work.
Click to expand...

Not picking a fight or anything but period equipment on a '66 would be points.

I ran an Alison unit on our GT6 until the day I made the mistake of getting its remote amplifier/controller wet while washing the engine. It died immediately upon power application. Until that day it had worked perfectly.

The main reason to add the electronic ignition is for improved reliability. Others would argue the reason is easier starts. Regardless, if that's what you're after, there are more modern versions of this that would probably deliver both improvements with a higher confidence level.
 
radibob said:
Good advice i think. I'm a sucker for period equipment, so I thought it would be fun to make this one work. Probably not at the cost of a breakdown though and with Moss selling Pertronix for less tham a hundred bucks, i think I'll go that way.
Click to expand...

Take a good look at "Retro Rockets" Pertronix Prices too.
 
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