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MG MGA - points

Is it worth switching from points to electronic breaker?
Barney seems negative on it .
Art Pearse

It's a hot topic, and a personal choice.

Electronic ignition works wonderfully, when it works. When it fails, it will typically do so suddenly and without warning, leaving you dead on the road where it happened. It's also far more sensitive to bad or dirty power, and is usually polarity sensitive.

Points are quite robust, normally able to withstand a surprising amount of wear, electrical issues or maladjustment without failing. When it does fail, you typically get plenty of warning that something is wrong so you can get it home for repair.

There is no performance difference between a properly set up point or electronic ignition system. But the points system will slowly wear, requiring occasional adjustment to stay at its best, whereas electronic simply continues to work at its best until it doesn't. For most people, that means a minor points gap adjustment once per year or so. My daily driver MGB runs points and I check it once or twice per year. The adjustment required is normally zero to 2 thou.

I have cars with both pertronix and Luminition EI, and several more running points. All of them run perfectly fine. The only sudden failure I've had was with EI. I've never had a sudden points failure but you do occasionally have to replace points or condensers, maybe once every few years.

The key to surviving EI seems to be a careful inspection and adjustment of the electrical system in the car, while the best survival method for points is to buy the best quality parts you can find. In my experience the best parts come from distributor Doctor in the UK. His points are far beyond what anyone else sells. Quality condensers can be bought from him also, or from British Vacuum Unit in the USA. The Lucas point with red wire are barely decent and their condensers with the orange wire are garbage.

Just my opinion of course, and others may disagree.
Steve Simmons

Hmmm - good question. I have electronic in my MGA, my frogeye had points.
The frogeye did suddenly stop runnung once due to a points problem, but thats hardly a fair sample for you to make judgement!
I am happy with electronic and wont change but it does concern me that if, a long way from home, I had a problem I would be well and truly stuffed. Whereas with points I guess you could carry a few cheap parts that could be replaced.
Graham V

I've run electronic on several cars and the only real fault is that some makers use very light wiring which needs supporting by tying onto other wiring in the car. If you let it flap about there is the risk of broken wiring--apart from that ,never had a failure, and they do tend to be better starters and maybe run a bit better down at low speeds than points equipped similar cars.--Sometimes there can be mods needed to the wiring for electric tacho's but not an issue for the cable driven MGA tacho.
William Revit

I have been running an Aldon Ignitor system and their Flame Thrower coil for 20 years without any issue. For me it's been fit and forget.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Thanks everyone.
Think I will stick to my points
Art
Art Pearse

Art,
I think a fully electronic distributor will probably perform better than a standard in that they provide a more consistant spark, but they do seem to be more prone to failure.

Electronic distributors are often fitted to racing engines as the accurate spark and timing will help give the best possible engine power.

But on a road car, this is probably unnecessary and so a points type distributor is perfectly adequate. You only need to check on Barneys website to see how many "millions" :^) of miles he has driven using a standard points dizzy.

One important thing for if you did decide to switch to go the electronic ignition route, these electronic units can be extremely sensitive to their power supply .
I burnt out two Pertronix electronic distributors within 6 months because my alternator was pumping out over 20 volts. So, if you do go electronic ignition route, check your charging system to avoid my expensive mistake.

Whichever distributor you have, I would recommend carrying a spare one around with you, because if you do suffer a distributor problem, it is just a simple 5 minute job to swap it for your spare and you are back on your way.

If you have ever replaced a set of points with the distributor on the engine, you will know just how awkward a job this is.

See attached picture to see how Tom Cruise would replace the points!

Cheers
Colyn



Colyn Firth

Points fail gracefully and slowly in most occasions, while electronic breakers are, in my experience, on/off.

I keep spare points, condenser, rotor in the boot for a cost of about $20, while a spare Pertronix is closer to $200.

In over 20 yrs, and more than 80,000 miles I’ve never had the A suddenly quit with points installed.

As Steve said earlier. this is a controversial topic and we all have differing experiences and opinions!

One last thought per Colyn’s comment, I find it much easier to photo the dizzy position, then remove it to replace the points, condenser, and rotor

- Ken
KR Doris

The problem with the conventional set up is not the points, that don’t instantly fail, but the condenser which certainly can fail instantly as I have experienced. My worst incident was with a brand new distributor from Moss on which the condenser failed at 125 miles!
I now have a Peritronix set up but I do carry my ‘last known to work’ conventional distributor so I could change quickly if necessary.

Paul
Paul Dean

The problem isn't the condenser design, it's crappy aftermarket parts. The points sold by most retailers and rebuilders are garbage, usually with a Lucas box and orange wire. The best condensers in my experience are currently sold by Distributor Doctor in the UK, and have a yellow wire. I have probably 100K miles on them and never had a failure. He also sells the best points I've found. Another good source for condensers are the blue wire units sold by British Vacuum Unit. Both of the above also do top notch distributor rebuilds.

Ken, I use the same method. Photograph the distributor / rotor position, then remove it. Even for a simple yearly points adjustment I find it easier.
Steve Simmons

I have been running points in my MGA for over 2 decades. Haven't had any real issues at all. Car always starts and runs fine. MGA's are a basic, simple car. With that in mind, they are very easy to maintain and keep on the road.
Bill Haglan

Art - can't fault your decision but if you were to reduce the current across the points you would be spared the degradation that comes with sparking. There must be some failure risk with the system to achieve this but it has been fit-and-forget with a range of distributor points for me since the 60s. The only exception is the current A which came home from Sweden fitted with a luminition system and with a spare in the boot !
Roger Walker

This thread was discussed between 27/12/2023 and 08/01/2024

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