Electronic Ignition for the HA

[rio678]

I was thinking of upgrading to Electronic Ignition for my HA, has anyone got some best tips on what brand is most reliable? is it worth the money and is it a nightmare to install?

[lambaj]

HI

Not a lot of choices for electronic ignition on the HA. To the best of my knowledge you cannot get anything other than a contact breaker triggered type, so unless your very handy with small bits of metal, a luminition (optical) or Aldon (hall effect) type of fitting will be very hard to locate.

Bit of info on the Delco dissys fitted to OHV's. There are two basic types, and the difference is in the position of the driveslot, and which one you have depends on which oil pump you have - Offset or central. HA's normally have the offset type, this means that you can't inadvertently fit the dissy 180' out which is the only drawback of the centre slot type. The dissadvantage of the offset type is the oil pump drive can have the thinner side of the drive slot snap off..... so you end up with a small bit of metal in the bottom of the sump. This is aggrovated by the poor design of the dissy shaft bearings which after relatively low milage, can wear and cause slop in the shaft, so placing sideloads on the oil pump drive leading to failure.
The second effect of the wear in the shaft bearings is the effect it has on the contact breaker gap. My old dissy was so worn, you could set the gap, then wiggle the shaft to close or re-open the breaker......not helpfull and it make accurate gap setting impossible as the shaft wobbles about.

Soooo. What do you do. Well the best option I've come across is to change the dissy for a new one - and you have the option to fit the late chevette dissy made by Bosch. These come in centre drive only, so if your HA is offset drive, then the oil pump will need to be swapped out too.... which whilst not a difficult job as such, it is just involved.
If you can't me asked to swap the pump, then getting a new offset drive dissy is still possible. They come up at swap meets and on ebay sometimes. Adrian may have them as well at Viva Spares.

Anyway. All the above assumes your dissy is worn. You can still find contact triggered electronic ignition modules that reduce the current through the points, so stopping it from burning out. You still have to check the gap every now and then as the wiper pad slowly wears out so closing the gap, but a breaker will last may thousands of miles. Make sure the HT system is in good order as with a electronic system, you can get a lot more energy through the plugs, so any weaknesses could give you a bit of a shock (boom boom!) . The actual fitting is normally simple enough. You can use the standard (not ballast) 12v feed from the ignition, and all you need is a good earth and the connection to the coil and the dissy. Simple.


Anyway, if you have any specific questions, drop a line back here and I'll see if I can help

Cheers
Tony (HA21)

[rio678]

Thanks for the info , do you happen to know where abouts the model number of the distributor is? can't seem to find it anywhere.

[lambaj]

I loosely recall seeing a stamped number on the outside of the main body, usually hidden in rust and old paint - but don't hold me to that.

Maybe somebody on here has a parts list and could let you know the correct number for your model of viva

Cheers
Tony (HA21)

[rio678]

I have been searching around and i think it is D202, i have cross referenced and lumenition seem to supply the right one..... I have emailed them to double check on this though.

[Vivanuts Glenn]

HI Rio

I have recently purchaced A Lumenition Electronic Ignition Kit to Black Bess my Viva HA it is fairly simple to fit and they are readily avalible off the shelf

Part Numbers are as follows

PMA 50 - module and optical switch

FK 317 - fitting kit for Delco D202/D204 distributors

These are readily avalible through various suppliers or from lumenition themselves


http://www.lumenition.com/

[rio678]

And there is a complete sparkrite system on Fleabay, for the Delco-remy 202/04 system.

[rio678]

Hi !


Thanks for that, has it improved the engine??

[Vivanuts Glenn]

well Bess was always a good runner but she did have a habbit of getting through sets of points every 1500 miles i must admit though the slight miss she always had has gone too

[Vivanuts Glenn]

well Bess was always a good runner but she did have a habbit of getting through sets of points every 1500 miles i must admit though the slight miss she always had has gone too