Petronix replacement for points

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HugoHarris
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Petronix replacement for points

Post by HugoHarris »

Hi forum, and especially Adrian!

I had my original Dinoplex refurbished by Mark Devaney when it developed a fault some time ago, rather than replacing it with an aftermarket system. Last time the car was on the road it ran well with the restored Dinoplex and restored distributor, except that it wore through two sets of points in rapid succession. Now, approaching the end of a 4 year restoration of the car I want a trouble free setup if possible. I believe my options are:

1. Keep with the original points & Dinoplex setup and hope the previous points were just from a defective batch

2. Retain the Dinoplex and replace the points with a Petronix or similar magnetic trigger. I have heard mixed things about this solution. Is the Petronix Ignitor I or II the one to go for? This would be my preferred solution if it works, as I have a restored Dinoplex and working original coil.

3. Ditch the Dinoplex and go for a full aftermarket electronic ignition solution. If so, which? I have read the the intel on the excellent dinoplex.org website but can’t deduce a definitive recommendation from it.

Thanks as ever for your advice. If anyone else has a view on this please chime in.

Hugo
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alh
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by alh »

The quality of many of the acurrently vailable replacement points set is average or below, i would recommend 1. to install a new known to be good set of points and keep the Dinoplex.

2. You could use a Pertronix Ignitor setup to trigger the Dinoplex but the Pertronix setups i had on the test bench had quite a variance in the trigger magnets with up to 3-4º (!) of variance in timing between the cylinders. If you have access to a distributor tester to make sure the timing is fine then this might be worth a try, but i would not blindly trust such a setup.

3. You could go for an MSD 6A but would still need a set of points for the trigger. Alternatively you could install a Lumenition Optronics optical breaker and do the Bosch conversion i documented here:
http://www.dinoplex.org/PDF/Wiring_Ferr ... Pickup.pdf

Good luck,
Adrian
HugoHarris
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by HugoHarris »

Many thanks for replying so quickly Adrian.

Would the Lumenition Optronics optical breaker be compatible with the Dinoplex?

Hugo
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by alh »

Not directly, you would need additional electronics to trigger the Dinoplex with a Lumenition optical switch.

My recommendation would be to install a new set of points and use the Dinoplex as long as possible/Coil is still working and eventually change to a Bosch/Lumenition setup should the Dinoplex Coil fail (as there is no replacement available for the coil anymore).
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by HugoHarris »

OK thanks Adrian, sound advice.
Hugo
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Stefan2000
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by Stefan2000 »

Maybe i can ad an opinion as well,

I think the preferable option is to keep everything original and make sure your distributor is in 100% top condition. I have never had any issues with points in my life, i did have problems with parts that caused points to wear, bad cam-profile surface, no grease on the cam what so ever, wrong condensers and most of all wrong repo parts.
I'll go of the deep end if i start about what junk parts i received for Dino distributors over the last little while, you simply have to test and measure every parts yourself and without a distributor test machine it is a no go to rebuild these distributors with the available parts.

Having said that, I've been at the same point as you are now. I had a fully functional Dinoplex including coil in my Dino. I was just a bit scared that sooner or later my original coil or Dinoplex would die so i decided to remove it alltogether, put it in a box and stored it away in a safe place.
It's all together a long story, but in the end i re-manufactured new Dinoplex cases and installed a programmable MSD ignition system inside my 'repo' box.
Found a spare distributor housing, locked it out and converted it with a Luminition optical switch. Needed to make a triggerwheel etc etc but that was no big problem.
It looks 99,9% original, it has no points or mechanical advance system any more and it works flawlessly so far.

If this would be an interesting option for you just let me know and i can help you further with it.
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Tobi
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by Tobi »

Stefan2000 wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2019 8:05 pm Having said that, I've been at the same point as you are now. I had a fully functional Dinoplex including coil in my Dino. I was just a bit scared that sooner or later my original coil or Dinoplex would die so i decided to remove it alltogether, put it in a box and stored it away in a safe place.
I hope you don't do the same with your engine ;)
Definitely the best way if you want to install a new MSD ignition system. However, the cost come close to a used working Dinoplex w/ coil (that you can use as spare while keeping yours in the Dino).
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by HugoHarris »

Thanks Stefan and Tobi, always great, knowledgable advice from this community! Having spent a lot of money getting the Dinoplex set up working I think I will give it one last go, but if I hit problems with the points again I will definitely look at the MSD option and may be in touch Stefan. I like the idea of having things 100% original and the Dinoplex whine is such an iconic part of the startup ritual (maybe that can be artificially simulated in your setup too!) But ultimately I want to use the car having been deprived of it for four years, so reliability will be the deciding factor in the long term.

Hugo
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by Tobi »

HugoHarris wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 9:00 amBut ultimately I want to use the car having been deprived of it for four years, so reliability will be the deciding factor in the long term.
Funnily, the only reliability problem I ever had regarding ignition was with an MSD ;)
I still don't know why. My Dino came w/o Dinoplex and I tried the cheap way with an MSD. It was easy to install and ran much better than without. However, on the next day, I was driving 500 meters from home and the Dino stopped. I checked the few cables again and again and was not able to find the cause. After that I bought a (large) Dinoplex with coil and never had ignition problems since then. I've given the MSD to a fellow Dino driver and it worked in his Dino again.
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Re: Petronix replacement for points

Post by Stefan2000 »

An original Dinoplex is in my opinion as good as any other newer replacement system. The problem lies most of all in the distributor.

There is an engine builder just around the block from my place and they happened to rebuild around 15 Dino Engines over the last 2 years or so. Because i have a distributor machine they asked me to do all the ignition systems. Most of them i just rebuild to stock with Dinoplex etc.etc. The thing is, from all the engines not 1 distributor was still in reasonable condition. From most of them basically every part was worn. If you need everything (this includes cup-base) it will easily be over €1000,- alone in parts to rebuild a distributor. And that is when all the parts you receive are good quality parts (not). I had to made half of the parts available myself again and than it is even more expensive because of low Qty.
From that perspective it get's quite interesting to move over to a programmable MSD. This because unregardless of the condition of your distributor you can use it anyway, you can just use all the 'worn' parts and just lock it out....no problem there.

But having said that, the engine builder dyno bench tested all the engines and he was very confident that the original setup with Dinoplex performed at least as good as some converted MSD / Bosch ignitions that they also tested on there dyno. He even thought the original ones performed better on the dyno, not sure about that but i believe that they will perform equal if in good condition.

@HugoHarris: Do you know exactly what has been done to your distributor and if it has been adjusted on a distributor testmachine?
I would at least check your 3-lobe cam for any imperfections on the running surface before mounting new points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSebNE8JTk
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