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who started the trend for distributorless ignition and when? only asking cause i still see some quite new cars with the old distributor set up ,as far as i can remember my montego had the dis-less set up that was 20 years ago
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Probably the French.
One of my previous VW's had a distributor but had electronic ignition. No points in sight. Hall Senders often played up a bit though. Swings and roundabouts...
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>> my montego had the dis-less set up that was 20 years ago
Really? What engine did it have? I can't recall ever fitting a Montego coilpack?
Ford had a V4 2-ltr Corsair with electronic ign and DIS running around in '74.
[Nobody mention the 2CV...]
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2cv
thought it had a cassette that nobody could set?
got to say only ever had one of these in my possession i fastened the dammed thing down on the back of my truck and it still leaned and nearly fell off on the first roundabout
i also remember it was the only car ive ever taken for an mot and only the horn passed
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bell boy
Your memory's slipping, old man. The dreaded cassette was the GS. Quite a nice idea - if the Japanese had made it....
The 2CV [et al] had a set of points behind the taper-seated fan on the crank nose switching a double ended coil.
The horn passed - that must have been a good one...
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The 3-cyl 2-stroke Wartburg (yes, I had one) had three coils and three sets of points, and therefore no distributor. A much maligned vehicle, IMHO, that was very durable and easy to work on.
Quite a few 4-cyl bikes have two coils and fire the plugs in pairs, every revolution.
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I had a Wartburg too - exactly 39 years ago. The 'coil pack' was about the only thing that didn't go wrong with it but I remember it with affection - it was nice to drive and went like stink. Of course, when in traffic, it was the people behind who got the stink!
Hondas I've had have always had electronic ignition and a dizzy - maybe I should try getting a modern one...
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How do they work?
I see how the 2CV does - only 2 cylinders, both spark at the same time, but the"wrong" one doesn't matter. And the Wartburg - multiple coils.
But if there is only one spark coil or pack, and 4 cylinders, how is the spark distributed? Isn't that a distributor?
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4 cylinder engines have two double ended coils tho' it is made as one assembly-a six will need three and so on.2CV was probably the first car tho' was alreday used on motorcycles.Corsairs(both in-line and V4)were never fitted with DIS-the first Ford to use the system was OHV engined Fiesta-in fact the Corsair never even got as far as Hall-effect-it always had points!
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On the Corsair there was a model made using an early system of module-controlled ignition-it wasn't successful but it used a distributor-with no mechanical/vacuum advance assemblies-to distribute the sparks to the plugs.
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Was it the MK3 Escort with the CVH engine ?
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4 cylinder engines have two double ended coils tho' it is made as one assembly-a six will need three and so on
But something will still have to decide which cylinder to spark - isn't that a distributor?
The point about the 2CV was that both cylinders sparked at the same time. But as one was on compression and the other on exhaust, the "wasted" spark didn't matter and couldn't do any harm. But if all 4 cylinders sparked at the same time, one would be correctly on compression, but another would be on induction - a disaster.
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The two double-ended coils manufactured as a single assembly have three connections-one an input to coils one and four and and the other an input to coils two and three-the remaining connection being a common return.Each fires one on compression and one on exhaust in turn.I did use one side of a Fiesta coil assembly on a 2CV for a short period.
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"The dreaded cassette was the GS."
Really? Mine had a conventional distributor and points. Real curse to adjust though, either had to use a mirror or remove the distributor to service the points.
[Showing my age, how many on this forum know about points....]
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Xileno
As so often with the French; their endemic union problems lead them to use multiple component suppliers for the same units.
Most GS's has SEV-Marchal dizzys [with the cassette points;] some Ducellier; some even had Femsa.
As you say; with the Ducellier type, taking the whole thing off was the simplest way to get it all assembled.
At least the SEV ones could have the dwell adjusted with it running; a rare thing in those days. With practice; you could change the cassette in-situ in under a minute.
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>>[Showing my age, how many on this forum know about points....]>>
As did the SU carburettor on a Morris Minor 1000 (my first car). Both were a regular DIY task and, what's more, quite frequent.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I can remember 20 odd yrs ago a gadget salesman turned up at the workshop.
He was demonstrating a device that did away with points / associated wiring and bypassed electronic systems. He reckoned he had sold loads as a diagnostic tool. Nobody believed him so he did a quick demo on a customers car (points already removed).
Replace distributor cap, remove HT lead from coil, plug gadget into lead, connect gadget to battery, Spin engine over - and it started and idled Ok.
He didn't seem to know much about the gadget, and agreed with suggestions that it must create a permanent HT spark, sent to the right cylinder at about the right time by the rotor arm. Very impressive demo, nobody bought one though.
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