1300 electronic ignition

Very little. As long as you got the complete set up, distributor, loom, coil, ballast resister and control box it would just use the wiring you already have. It’s basically a standalone system.
 
Given the low investment, I would definitely buy the Brazilian part Kent is suggesting, its cheap, it will work and you can have it now. If you want a factory system you can collect the parts at your liesure and still enjoy your car now.
 
Michael Hunter said:
Looking for a source or good used electronic ignition for my X. I cant seem to locate anything to convert my ducellier distributor to electronic. Mine is a 78 with the 32 datra carburetor. When I got the car it had a couple spark plugs wires missing and someone had removed the dizzy. I got #4 at tdc and put the dizzy in. The first time I had it running it ran very smooth with exception idle was higher than I liked. After I desmogged it,it started running a lil rough. I put in new plugs,checked gap. Checked gap on points. Partially disassembled the carb and clean it. It fired up and ran smooth except high idle again..the more i try to get the idle down and set the timing with a timing light..it has progressively gotten worse. I want to convert to electronic ignition just for reliability reasons. I would appreciate and guidance or help. So if anyone has anything to offer me please DM me with what you have to offer... thank you in advance.
Mike
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Desmogging involves removing or disabling a lot of vacuum hose-operated stuff, so an unexpected high idle right after desmogging could be that you inadvertently created a vacuum leak, possibly by not capping off something that previously had a hose on it.
 
Michael Hunter said:
Have u installed yours yet ? Do you know for certain it fits a 1300 ?
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One of our vendors, Vick Auto, has a unit that is more expensive but works along the same lines, an all-in-one unit for upgrading from points to electronic. The Vick unit has a side-nipple brown distributor cap (looks much more at home in the engine bay than the top nipple white cap).
http://www.vickauto.com/newstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_7_57&products_id=4022

They do make a "point" in their description that if you are upgrading from a points-based ignition system, you need to upgrade the coil as well, because coils designed for points generally don't have the capacity to work well with an electronic ignition.
 
FYI
I have a 78 1300. I swapped my original Ducellier for a used electronic unit and sender purchased from Midwest. I mounted the box in the spare tire compartment. I have had no issues it works fine and no more fooling around with points.
 
RobV said:
FYI
I have a 78 1300. I swapped my original Ducellier for a used electronic unit and sender purchased from Midwest. I mounted the box in the spare tire compartment. I have had no issues it works fine and no more fooling around with points.
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Thank you..for your reply...I talked to Brayden and they dont have any in stock...that's why I'm considering this unit...cost is worth a try
 
I did find this a while back and want to try it someday. I have a hard time fully understanding it, but care it to using relay's on high power items. From what I've read, points have a short lifespan due to the wear of the excessive mass of electrons passing. This just uses the points as a signal instead of the actual load. That's my understanding.

https://x1-9ownersclub.org.uk/forum/4-news-and-views/29814-electronic-ignition.html

Ignitioncircuitnov2014.PNG

Quote from link above:
I have attached the circuit diagram, this should be self explanatory. The main component is the IGBT which is designed for electronic ignition. It is robust with lots of protection nevertheless the circuit I developed has added protection. You could simplify it if you wanted, the bits I would leave off, if I did this again, would be the LED indicator and the change over switch. The circuit has been reliable, I tested it before and after installation and have had no issues. I installed the circuit in a small die cast aluminium box from Maplin (The box was the most expensive item at £5.). Installation can be a problem in the X19 because it gets hot! I’ve found a couple of good places, but this time I installed it just behind the thermal insulation that lines the engine to passenger compartment bulkhead. Here it is close to the coil and distributor so no long wires. I estimate the cost of all components to be about £13.00, the components were from Maplin except for the IGBT which I purchased via ebay. The design is mine, but I am happy for you (and other X19 owners) to use/adapt at your risk....but Ive had no trouble at all. Let me know if you go down this route.

I would not recommend the Vellerman kit which is available, the components are not ideal as they get too hot. The kits with high voltage drivers and a hall effect switch to replace the points are perhaps the most logical but you might need to go to a specialist (like Powerspark Ignition in Bromsgrove) as the X19 is not common enough so they adapt another kit to fit the X19 distributor. I was not happy with this as I wanted something I could quickly revert to standard should the electronics fail.
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AKimball92 said:
I did find this a while back and want to try it someday. I have a hard time fully understanding it, but care it to using relay's on high power items. From what I've read, points have a short lifespan due to the wear of the excessive mass of electrons passing. This just uses the points as a signal instead of the actual load. That's my understanding.

https://x1-9ownersclub.org.uk/forum/4-news-and-views/29814-electronic-ignition.html

View attachment 12210

Quote from link above:
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That circuit shown uses an IGBT to carry the current that the points would normally carry so the points only carry a low current. I've used several capacitive discharge units with the 1974 Ducelier distributor and the points never wore out. I'd expect the same from the circuit shown. With a CD unit, dwell angle is not important (unlike the circuit shown) since the coil is only used as a transformer and not to induce a high voltage in the secondary when the points open (V=L*di/dt) as in the stock Kettering type system. A CD unit typically gives a much better spark for starting and at high rpm.

Once I get my car back on the road, I plan to see if I can adapt a 79 pointless distributor to a CD unit since I don't have the interface box that goes with it.
 
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dllubin said:
Once I get my car back on the road, I plan to see if I can adapt a 79 pointless distributor to a CD unit since I don't have the interface box that goes with it.
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You don’t need the brain the ignition came with, you can use Bob Brown’s guide on adapting the GM ignition module to do the same job.

https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/hei-ignition-conversion-complete.12989/

Bob Brown’s directions:
https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/rebuild-your-bosch-icm.25605/
 
kmead said:
You don’t need the brain the ignition came with, you can use Bob Brown’s guide on adapting the GM ignition module to do the same job.

https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/hei-ignition-conversion-complete.12989/

Bob Brown’s directions:
https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/rebuild-your-bosch-icm.25605/
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Yeah, I saw the GM module info but if I can interface one of the CD units I have it should provide a better spark. The GM unit uses the coil just as the points do as a Kettering type ignition.
 
Random question... whats a CD unit? dllubin, you obviously sound smarter than I am.

Ps. ha a Capt'n Obvious commercial came on just as I was typing "you obviously sound smarter than I am." Excellent timing!

Edit: One thing I liked about the link I posted, the costs are very minimal to get rid of one of the negatives to a points system: wear.
 
AKimball92 said:
Random question... whats a CD unit? dllubin, you obviously sound smarter than I am.

Ps. ha a Capt'n Obvious commercial came on just as I was typing "you obviously sound smarter than I am." Excellent timing!
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CD is short for capacitive discharge. I can tell you how they worked about 30 years ago, but I have not investigated them for quite a while. I know MSD was a major supplier. I actually designed and built one for a senior thesis. Basically, you have a ~400V power supply that charges a capacitor that is discharged through the coil at the proper time. Fancy units can do multiple discharges during a single combustion event to provide more thorough burning. A major advantage is they can maintain the same level of spark at high rpms. They can also provide a good spark at low battery voltages if properly designed so they work well for cold weather starts.
 
So I thought I would let everyone know what my experience has been so far with the 40.00 dizzy off of fleabay. Today i finally decided to get my dead computronix unit out of my 1.9 and since my bluetooth 123 dizzy isn't finished as of yet I thought I would install the cheap unit and try it. I started off by fitting a 79-83 X1/9 side entry plug wire cap. This involves cutting a new notch in the housing 180 degrees across from where the chinese have put the notch on the housing. This is so the vacuum adv. will be toward the access plate and the wires will point opposite. Also I removed the plastic separator plate from below the rotor so I would get more housing to cap overlap. With the side entry cap there was still a problem with clearance between the cap and the access panel behind the spare wheel. I removed the access panel and finessed the upper curved portion into a cup shape and reinstalled it with plenty of room. I used a stock bosch coil and mount in the normal coil location and ran the red wire from the dizzy to the positive coil post. The green wire to the negative coil and the switch 12V and tach to their respective posts on the coil. Used the looks about right rotor position on #4 tdc on crank pulley and lightly locked it down. Turned the key and it fired up quickly and settled into a high idle. I have yet to set base timing but will set it to just a few degrees. The sohc engine only needs about 28 degrees total timing due to the swirl in the combustion chamber so vacuum advance isn't needed but looking at the timing curve it may require some softer springs in the advance area.
 
It's been a better part of the summer since the last comment on this thread. Does the review hold up on the cheapo EI Dizzy?
 
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