Forum

[Chris [Stockport]]

Some years ago my car was running very rough so I replaced all the ignition stuff and it was just as bad.

I finally contacted the Club, and he told me there was a massive batch of condensers through from China that was rubbish and nobody new which was which.

He told me to fit electronic ignition, which I did. It was immediately perfect. And still is.
Though, if that ever goes wrong it really will be a pain....

Sometime later I was talking to an electrics specialist who said these condensers looked identical on the outside but once taken apart, he had seen the wire was just sort of pushed in, with the hope that it might make contact. Which it sometimes did. And sometimes didn't.

For now, I'm intending to keep both my bikes on points. But it's nice to know that there's an alternative out there. I've heard that the latest Boyer Brandsen (spelling?) electronic units are pretty good.

[Justin]

The one I have here is a Boyer. I might just keep the Boyer in reserve for now and carry on with the points in there. The bike has done very little millage on them.

[Duke of Wybourne.]

So points should be retained?

As mentioned, preference plays a part. I always seem to manage to get my bike running the way I want it on points, but that's after a lot of fiddling with the auto advance etc..if you can't be bothered with that, then electronic is the way to go.

[Wheaters]

I’ve run various vehicles over the last fifty years on conventional points but I have had quite a few problems with failed condensers causing breakdowns. For one vehicle I was buying three condensers at once in the hope of finding a good one. I was finding some were failing very soon after fitting, including OE Japanese parts, which I’d expected to be totally reliable.

On the other hand I’ve never had a failure of an electronic module. I converted a Lucas distributor to electronic using a cheap module (less than a fiver at the time and cheaper than a points set) which replaced the points and condenser, as an experiment. It was triggered by a modified type of rotor arm with four tiny magnets in the base. I bought a spare and carried both it and the old points and condenser in the car. Never needed either spare.

But both systems still need a coil and I’ve had them fail, too.

[stinkwheel]

I put the CDI module in the LHS toolbox when I fitted electronic ignition to my 612 bullet.

I've since put it back to points, probably needlessly as it turns out because what I thought was an ignition timing issue was something else entirely. It's running perfectly well on the points for now though so I'll only change it back if I start having problems.

[dalgrae]

Hi on 250 Continental I kept the points but moved the condensor to the right side under the toolbox cover,and also fitted a spare condensor next to it so very easy to change over if a condensor fails

Colin