All my bangers have always had electronic ignition and all the Fords I have ever known have had it (I was too young to do anything under the bonnet of Cortinas etc) but some Vauxhalls and Rover still used the dizzy's until fairly recently even with proper fuel injection.
The system seems really old fashioned to me, my ten year old car dosn't even have HT leads there is no need for them.
So why did some cars still use this silly old fashioned system called Dizzy? All I ever remember about distributors is that you had to constantly spray WD40 on the points and they were very prone to damp. Coil packs do pack up of course but most do seem to last a long long time without any trouble.
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So why did some cars still use this silly old fashioned system called Dizzy
You been on the beer again. Why do you refer to a distributor as a Dizzy (with a capital D)?
I'd be surprised if any modern cars had a distributor in recent years - they have had electronic ignition for a long time. Emission regulations would be part of this reason.
Edited by rtj70 on 03/02/2010 at 21:48
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Why do you refer to a distributor as a Dizzy
ahh... thanks rtj :-)
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older cars had distributors , and its not all of them that got wet? , because in those days , electronics wernt used on cars , and coil packs were a new thing?
price coil pack and plugs =x
distributor cap (lot of milage to ware out) rotor arm (likewise ) , set of points and a condenser every 3rd points change + plugs = x divided by 5 , and a easy self maintainance job , on a sat morning
edit : i use condensers on my old motorbikes , nissan cherry was about the last "common" car to use them
Edited by freddy1 on 03/02/2010 at 21:51
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No beer since last saturday.
Until recently I mean upto about 2000 when they were still very old fashioned even then. I ask this because it is amusing on the Corsa site all these young 18 year olds having to mess with their distributors to get their cars working. An art I would have thought was long forgotton.
The reason I ask this question because I would have though coil packs were cheaper than dizzys?
Edited by Rattle on 03/02/2010 at 22:03
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Older cars e.g Mk1 fiesta and Mk1 & 2 escorts had a distributor cap with rotor arm and set of points.
Newer advancement meant the points were no longer needed, but a distributor cap was still used. E.g Mk 1 VW polo
IMHO - the points were always the weak point. Never had problems with distributor caps and rotor arms.
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I'm very sure that my mk1 astra didn't have points to adjust although it had a distributor it was a modern electronic way of egnition but I'm very sure that my girlfriends, at the time vw polo that was on a suffix y plate did have them because we had to keep adjusting them every 6 months or so
in regards to my astra I'm going to have to dig out my haynes manual to check but I'm 99% sure it did not have contact points for the 1.3ohc
it still had a distro though and it. Was a very reliable starter wet weather never used to phase it at all
Edited by redviper on 03/02/2010 at 23:13
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later fords(mk3 escorts) and gm models (astra cavalier) (and the rover group) (late mini / maistro/etc) used a distributor , with a module attached to the side that did "the works" , a distributor cap and rotor arm was still used , the electronic ign was a hall effect type thing in most cases , those were a temporrary stopgap , before coil packs etc , and plug leads were still used
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I think during changeover to modern ignition some cars had a distributor cap assy with no leads coming out (a quick google says honda were doing this circa '95) -- before my time anyway.
This was during the changeover from dizzy to coil packs, and all that was inside the dizzy was the rotor arm and a hall effect sensor, this arrangement worked as the crankshaft position sensor.
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edit : i use condensers on my old motorbikes nissan cherry was about the last "common" car to use them
Ahhhhh - 'condensers'....
Broke down many years ago with the (very young) family aboard. The car stopped dead, so I was certain it was an electrical fault - and proceeded to spend the best part of three hours on a hot day trying to fix it.
To poor to afford RAC in those days - but I did have a toolbox and an assortment of spares, such as plugs, HT leads, points, and distributor cap, all of which i tried in various configurations without success.
Eventually ( and covered in oil and grime) I decided that the only thing I hadn't checked (and the only thing I didn't have!) was the condenser. So it was a two mile walk to a motor spares place, two miles back with the new part - and off with the old one
It was only then that I discovered that the low tension wire had broken inside the braided cloth insulation that they used to use!
Impossible to see the break without removing it (when it fell apart). Popped on the new condenser and it started immediately - prompting the sort of relief that only a stony broke motorist who has broken down on the side of the road many miles from home can appreciate ;)
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aint it funny , after doing 2 hrs work trying to find the fault (broken wire) that the car has been "tuned" up without starting her ,,,
nowt wrong with distributors and ht leads , they did (100 yrs?) a good job
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Just seem a bit of a waste now though when you can stick a coil over the plugs and be done with it. Mine are on 83k/10 years now and runs perfectly mind you HT leads can last that long too they just look a bit messy and make the engine look cluttered, or for computer geeks like me they make it look too much like an engine!
It is a little bit like saying the steam train did was well for 120 years but as an efficient modern engine they were useless.
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Rattle you will be calling the IBM PS2 old fashioned next?
I,ve just fitted an electronic ignition on one of my older brit bikes the thing is the size of a match box (do you remember matchboxes?) , ok made by a company called "pazon" (google them)
50.000 actions per second , that "THING" has more computing power than a 20ft x 40ft mainframe computer from the 60s
times have changed , newish cars are "disposable" when a fuel or electronic fault costs more to fix than the car is worth?
20 / 30 yrs ago , second hand distributor £5? , secondhand carburetter £5?
times have changed
for the better?
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The best place for a Dizzy is in a Gladstone bag.
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the electic motor , coil induction...and capacity discharge were invented long before the steam locomotive
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My old Golf mk3 GTi had the distributor + electronic ignition and didn't miss a beat in 15 yrs, 150 k miles; always started within a moment of the key being turned, and never needed anything more than occasional HT leads, cap and rotor arm. Later models got through coilpacks like an elephant gets through sticky buns, so it's not all one-way traffic!
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