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MG MGB Technical - Pertronix Electronic Ignition

Thanks to all you who were talking about the pertronix last week I spent $100. I had ran this on other cars and planned on adding it to my 70, but on down the road. I couldnt resist, ordered it up, installed it, once again very pleased. To answer the question asked last week about power. I did gain enough power to feel. It is much more responsive to my foot. It gained some lower end torque and on the top it just keeps pulling. My idle, with a strong street cam, is much smoother than it was. Hope that helps anyone who may be considering this as an option.....just my 2¢.
Bryan

The big mistake many people make is comparing a knackered OE part with a new aftermarket. Not surprising there is an improvement.
Paul Hunt 2

Hello Bryan,

I installed it on a friend's Spit, which was a pain ... to start in morning, notwithstanding the point status. Now it starts after 1/4 of turn...

A real improvement.

Cheers,

JGC
Jean Guy Catford

Paul,
The points and condenser it replaced had less than 1000 miles on them and on a fresh engine. I have also ran the pertronix in a midget with about 90,000 miles at time of conversion. My experience with the midget is what made me decide to try it in the B. I truthfully did not expect to see a difference seeing how it wasnt replacing old parts. It is a great upgrade in my personal opinion for a car in any condition.
Bryan

Bryan. I am not surprised at your results. I have seen some old, worn distributors which had bent distributor shafts and significant run out on the points cam. The worst distributor was so bad that there was .045" in difference between the highest and lowest lobes due to variation in the height of the lobes of the points can and augmented by a bent distributor shaft. A bent shaft, and out of tolerance points cam (should be, ideally, less than .001" in difference when measured with the points cam mounted between centers on a lathe, but .001" of variation is acceptable, more is not), especially when combined with a worn distributor shaft bushing, means a points type system will not function well.

An electronic points replacement system will tend to hide/correct many of these problems and you will see a quite noted increase in performance and ease of starting.

But, when a fully checked out distributor, properly rebuilt, is used as the basis of the trials, there is little, if any performance difference to be noted.

Les
Les Bengtson

I have to agree. If a Pertronix unit makes a seat-of-the-pants improvement then the distributor is probably very worn. With a freshly rebuilt distributor there should be little to no difference in performance between the two.
Steve Simmons

To all who did not read the above. The pertronix replaced new parts, in a fresh engine. I do not keep worn out parts. They are refurbished or replaced. My distributor is in top shape. I never said "seat of pants improvement". I said you can feel the difference, it is more responsive and it smoothed out my idle with a strong street cam. The ignitor with the Lucas sports coil is a much more reliable and stronger ignition than points.
Bryan

I used the Lumitronix conversion in my 79 MGB after my points kept collapsing. I, too was pleasantly surprised to get increased power, snap starts. My engine also has perfromance camshaft, but the igniton conversion was done subsequent to the camshaft change.

Excellent choice for anyone to convert from the old points & condensor system. Though I have never tested for fuel economy, but I would imagine there will be somewhat of fuel savings as well as emissions reduction.

cheers

Gary :>{D
79MGB
gnhansen

This thread was discussed between 04/04/2008 and 07/04/2008

MG MGB Technical index

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