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I'm sure that this has been amply discussed, even to death, but I wasn't satisfied with what I found in the Archives. I'm going to take the plunge, and install a Pertronix breakerless ignition system in a '69 1800 w/ a stock B-20. The car has a Weber conversion, and I just drove it from Seattle to Washington, D.C. It ran flawlessly, but the points kept closing up on me., so,...
Here's the rub, I have a whole bunch of distributors to choose from, as I've been parting out cars for almost 15 years. The car now has an aluminum bodied vacuum advance type dizzy, that has a "085" on the side. It had a vacuum retard type as stock, back when it had Strombergs on it. When the Weber was installed, it ran so cr**** that we went to the 085 type, and it was night and day! I also have several distributors w/ "086" and a bunch of others I'm going to list below. Some of them are of the vacuum retard type, which I think were for the first "smog" controlled engines.
Anyway, here's what I have, and I would welcome any comment as to which would be the best candidate for an electronic breakerless ignition set up. I also have a Mallory UNILITE breakerless distributor (w/ a tag reading 236 1001) which I inherited somewhere. What I'm aiming for here is reliability and ease of maintainance, not out and out performance. If I can get both, well,...
Metal body distributors;
a.) 0-231-153-009 JFR 4
b.) 0-231-153-002 JFR 4
c.) 0-231-153-003 JFR 4
d.) 0-231-146-078 JFUR 4 (w/ vacuum- retard?)
e.) 0-231-146-099 4 (w/ vacuum- retard?)
I think these next ones are the old B-18 122 standard metal body types;
f.) VJUR 4 BL 33
g.) VJU 4 BL 33
h.) VJ 4 BL 34
Now the Aluminum bodied distributors;
I.) 0-231-178-007 JF 4
j.) 0-231-170-086 JFU 4 (vacuum retard type?)
k.) I think there may be some other types in my various B-18/B-20 fleet, but I haven't looked recently. Sometimes there can be too much of a choice, so I need to narrow down the likely candidates. I believe that the "U" stands for "unterdruck" (= vacuum in German). Thanks again all, you d' best!
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posted by
someone claiming to be shayne
on
Thu Jul 27 12:33 CST 2006 [ RELATED]
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The 003 and 009 have the same base-plate, they take the same tune-up kit. They will take the IPD/Pertonix number 3E0299. The 002 has the same base-plate as the 003 and 009 but I've *heard* (don't know for sure) that it was for automatic transmission (BW35) and does not have a very broad advance curve.
007 is the EASIEST distributor to deal with, whether points or electronic ignition. Good advance curve. No Vacuum module. IPD/Pertronix #3E0300, or Crane.
The 078 and 099 are carb'd 140 dizzy's, vac retard...won't take a Pertronix that we've found, will take a Crane, though.
The VJU dizzy's are very early B18 ('62-'63?) and are vac advance, I believe. Crane only.
The 085 and 086 won't take Pertronix either and Crane is a tough fit but it works. They are vac advance. I use an 085 with Crane in my over-the-top hot-rod motor. Optimal tuning of a vac advance distributor is a little different than idle settings, I'm still working on perfecting that method in my car.
Pertronix Co. may have more info about fitment to those dizzy's we've not had the resources to test.
All this assumes those dizzy's you have don't need a re-build. The perfect distributor for your car will be the one that still has it's centrifugal functioning perfectly and no center shaft slop.
I have a big box of various distributors too - they've all tested as needing to be re-built.
We've got a shop here in Portland that does a fine job of re-building distributors- The Philbin Group, 800-869-7301. contact: Mark Nicholai.
Best,
Shayne (ipd)
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Awr-i-g-h-t, this is the kind of info I (or anyone else) can take to da' BANK!!!
Thanks, Shayne. The Pertronix set was, in fact, bought from you guys, so the set up info came by way of a detour!
Are the 140 series vacuum retard type good for anything besides parts? Or are they just an historical artifact of Volvo's attempt to get their engines effluvium to be cleaner? Glorified paperweights? I must have 6 or 7 of them.
Any ideas about the Mallory electronic dizzy I mentioned?
I've been pulling vacuum advance units off of Saabs (900 series?), and they seem to work OK on Volvos.
Also, on Saabs, all the hose clamps are the original Swedish type, the good ones
that don't "cheese grater" the hoses, like the generic clamps.
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posted by
someone claiming to be shayne
on
Fri Jul 28 05:36 CST 2006 [ RELATED]
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I would guess the 140 distributors (078, 099) are as good or better than the 003, 009. If you leave the vacuum disconnected, there's no reason to think they wouldn't be just fine. If you set the timing up just right, the vacuum retard can be used just as it was intended, though the general consensus is to leave it disconnected.
The 078 and 099 take the same points, etc. as the D-jet distributors, which is just as easy to deal with as the 007 (see earlier post). They won't, however, take the same Pertronix for reasons I can't remember. You may know the difficulty in getting the points mounted *just right* to the screw on the 003 and 009 (+ 002).
The availability of new Mallory dizzy's (through IPD) pre-dates my Volvoing, so I really don't know anything about them. A friend and I tried to tune one up back in the early days (when I really shouldn't have owned any wrenches:o) but opted for swapping to a Bosch, and the car ran much better.
If you go with the Mallory, you may want to cruise the web for availability of cap, rotor, etc.
Best,
Shayne.
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