Points vs EI ?

Digger

Gear Grinder
Sep 22, 2010
18
North Salt Lake, Utah
Willys Model
Willys Year:
Hey Fellas,

I have a 62 wagon with a hurricane and I am Just curious about your thoughts on this, and your experince with the latter

Thanks.
 
Hopefully, points will still work after the terrorists, Iran or North Korea attack with an EMP. And then 2012 is supposed to be a peak for solar activity (EMP). :mrgreen:

When I made the change to EI on my first car, there was a noticeable improvement in performance. When it worked that is. When it didn't work, it stopped running all together. Dead. Side of the road. Cold dark night. All alone...
 
Looks like most of us have little or no experience or opinion. Properly adjusted points work good, electronic don't need adjusted. So the call is convenience or originality.
 
Personally, I'm a big fan of electronic ignition. I put it on all of my old vehicles. Beter, more consistant spark, better performance, and not having to jack around with points and condensors anymore. I know that the purists may feel differently, but there's a reason that cars no longer come with points. Despite a few purist tendancies of my own, driveability and reliability trump originality. ...Just my two cents. :cheers:
 
Digger, I haven't made that change yet, but plan to. Problem is finding the stuff that fits. I called Pertronix, because they have an electronic set up for the 134 4 cyl, but I couldn't find it for the 226. They gave me a part # that is supposed to fit. It's for a different application as far as the website goes, but I called them 3 separate times just to see what I got for an answer each time, and all three said that this one works. A rivit has to be removed from the breaker plate, but other than that, it's supposed to fit just fine. Like I say, I haven't checked it out yet. If you make the swap be sure to post it for the benefit of others. Pics would be good too. :) Here's the info. Good luck.
Steve

Pertronix Electronic Ignition
Phone # 909-599-5955

My dist = Autolite IAT-4206

Pertronix Part # 1569
IAT-4010

Will need to drill out rivets that hold breaker plate.
 
aquawilly54 said:
Digger, I haven't made that change yet, but plan to. Problem is finding the stuff that fits. I called Pertronix, because they have an electronic set up for the 134 4 cyl, but I couldn't find it for the 226. They gave me a part # that is supposed to fit. It's for a different application as far as the website goes, but I called them 3 separate times just to see what I got for an answer each time, and all three said that this one works. A rivit has to be removed from the breaker plate, but other than that, it's supposed to fit just fine. Like I say, I haven't checked it out yet. If you make the swap be sure to post it for the benefit of others. Pics would be good too. :) Here's the info. Good luck.
Steve

Pertronix Electronic Ignition
Phone # 909-599-5955

My dist = Autolite IAT-4206

Pertronix Part # 1569
IAT-4010

Will need to drill out rivets that hold breaker plate.


Thanks for the info, I will let you know how it goes.
 
If you have the desire or time to play around a bit a GM HEI is a great upgrade but not a real easy one.
after I rebuilt my 226 a few years ago and had it running good I decided I'd like to get rid of the points. I had read a little about the hotter spark and no points provided by a GM HEI distributor so I bought a used one from EBay. The body of the distributor is way to tall and I found out later it's advance is opposite of what the 226 needs but it can be shortened and the vacuum can be flopped along with some of the internals, afterwards though I noticed a quicker start and a little more get up and go. After running it for over a year I put a timing light on it just to check it all out and it was still sitting right where I set it and still running just as good as ever. I'm real happy with this upgrade, another nice thing is the wiring is only one wire (coil is in the cap) so it's easy and cleans up the engine bay.
 
Brad, this sounds good, but it sounds like the stuff doesn't fit in the auto lite distributor housing. Correct?

Would you be able to post step by step directions for this along with some pics of the process and end result?
Steve.
 
More important than a hot spark is a long spark duration.If the spark duration can be doubled then it's more likely to avoid a misfire.Long spark duration is what made magnetos popular in racing .Modern multi spark boxes do the same thing more or less.
Resistor wires and spark plugs shorten the spark by chopping off about 1/2 the duration of energy flow .A switch to solid core wires and non resistor plugs can make a difference for just a few bucks and no engineering..NGK makes R series non resistor spark plgs in the proper heat ranges.Of course if you have a radio the non resistor stuff will mess it up.The new 250 ohm plug wires can help andstillaloow radio reception in most cases. And if your engine runs fine as it is a change will show very little improvement.
And a worn distributor affects points timing and nothing will really help.
An HEI or electronic conversion of the stock dizzy usually works quite nicely even on a stock engine just because of better spark timing.
 
Steve, That is correct that this does not fit in a stock distributor, It's a whole new/used one that needs to be modified. I thought about taking pics and doing a build thread but I don't know when I'll have the time.
It's not really hard just time consuming to do the modification and I have access to a lathe so it made some of the work easier. There is some info in the Willys tech forum that might help, my biggest concern was trying to figure out what the best advance would be. I have another set of weights I'd like to try just for kicks and I'll try to take some pictures when I do. I'd be curious to know if anyone else see's as much improvement as I saw with this change, my engine was in excellent shape as was the original distributor and electrical system when I first did this modification and it ran good before it just ran better afterward. As a side note I was running the stock 12V generator when I first made this modification then I changed to an alternator, both worked good.
 
Thanks for responding Brad. It's gonna be a while before I get my engine rebuild taken care of, but when it's back on the road, it's time to play. I want a good base line before I change anything.
Thanks much.
Steve
 
aquawilly54 said:
Thanks for responding Brad. It's gonna be a while before I get my engine rebuild taken care of, but when it's back on the road, it's time to play. I want a good base line before I change anything.
Thanks much.
Steve
Aquawilly54, check out this site before you buy and have to modify what you buy, may be worth the money and headaches. It's $239.99 plus shipping but I'm thinking a firs tim fit is worth the cash spent.
http://www.kaiserwillys.com/product/237 ... stributors

Mark
 
That's a pretty slick setup and I probably would have gone with what Kaiserwillys has if it had been available. I had the time and curiosity to try the HEI and really like it but it's definetly not a drop deal. I've been driving a 55 Ford with a 6 cylinder a lot this summer and changed that distributor out too (ford Duraspark). I like things stock but a few bolt on upgrades are nice and electronic ignition is something I'm sold on.
 
BradW said:
That's a pretty slick setup and I probably would have gone with what Kaiserwillys has if it had been available. I had the time and curiosity to try the HEI and really like it but it's definetly not a drop deal. I've been driving a 55 Ford with a 6 cylinder a lot this summer and changed that distributor out too (ford Duraspark). I like things stock but a few bolt on upgrades are nice and electronic ignition is something I'm sold on.
Pays to ask around before you pay out the nose. I have found a Continential wholesale distributor in Dallas, but I can beat some of the parts they sell by going to O'Reilly's or Autozone. Pete put my excell list on the tech post. Spent many hours recoperating from back surgery on the computer cross referencing National Stock Numbers to current manufactures at local stores. My attitude is "Why pay more" i stole that saying from somewhere. LOL
 
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