> I have seen and read some information on three products:
> Pertronix
> Crane
> Ignitor
>
> I would appreciate hearing from any users of these products
> (or any others!), both pro and con. Any comments on the
> ease of installation, reliability (or non-!), support from the
> manufacturer, etc. would be appreciated very much!
Jim,
As someone already pointed out, the Pertronix and the Ignitor are the same
unit... but here is run down you wanted:
Petronix Ignitor:
My personal experience with one five years ago was bad. The collar that
holds the six magnets was faulty and I needed a replacement right from the
get-go. After I recieved my replacement I had a noticible flatspot in the
powerband around 3000RPM. Switching back to points resolved the issue. I
had enough customers with Pertronix issues that I stopped selling their
products. Getting replacement parts from Pertronix was simple enough, they
were always quick to send them out. Getting them to honor their warantee
when they went from 36 months down to 30months was a headache to say the
least. The Pertronix Ignitor is probably the easiest of them all to
install.
Crane XR700 & XR3000:
Good kits, good instructions, good reliability and good performance. The
XR3000 is the successor to the XR700. I have a customer running an XR3000
and Crane coil combination that I sold him last year and he seems quite
pleased with that setup. Crane has good tech support if you call and they
also are quick to send out replacement or missing parts. So this is a good
choice, but you need to hide the control box if you are concerned with it
looking out of place
Magna Spark:
This is a new ignition setup from the UK. I recieved two units a few months
ago to evaluate. I have one in my TR6 (switched from points). It is
basically similar to the Ignitor in that it has a magnetic collar and a hall
effect sensor. But it also has an external control unit to give it some
proper electronic ignition capabilities (not just an electronic trigger like
the Pertronix). The control box is really small, it looks like a GM HEI
Ignition Module (which is about 1" wide x 3" long) mounted on an aluminum
heat sink. I like my unit, no idea what it offers in performance as I can
barely feel any difference from points. The real clincher for me is that it
has a life time warantee. The real negative is that you have to spend $285
(150 GBP) for the ignition which includes the warantee.
The Magna Spark is a purpose built ignition that was designed specifically
to be retrofitted into old Lucas distributors. The range they offer right
now is small, only being offered for the popular MGs, Triumphs and Jags.
Jim, if you would like, I'll be happy to send you one of my spare units to
try out for a few weeks. Email me off the list and I can get one to you to
try out (or send you some pics if you want to see what it looks like, etc.)
Cheers,
Kai
--
Kai M. Radicke
Wishbone Classics
* British Car Parts *
www.wbclassics.com
Ph: 215.945.7250
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