Ultradog - you talked me into trying EI again

Put it on my 3000 today. We'll see how it goes.
We all know that distributor is not fun to work in and
I always seem to drop one of the dog-gone screws.
It's been exhibiting an intermittent misfire, but started
and ran fine otherwise. I "assumed" it was in need of points
cleaning and adjusting. So, I figured I'd try the EI on it instead.
In the process, I found the cause of the problem.
Not the points. Coil wire. But it's in there anyway.

Violated "the" rule! threw parts at it before isolating the problem.
At least UD will be proud of you.

Guilty as charged JMOR. I kept the points though. Just in case.
I made a coil wire out of salvaged parts I had here but ordered new.
It's my snow plow tractor. More important here than there I presume.

I do have to side with Jmor on this one.
But it's not like we all haven't BTDT
And to be fair, this is a case where
someone who doesn't have your diagnostic
skills might also have thrown in a new set
of wires at the same time then claim that
installing EI solved an intermittent miss
which we know would be false.
I would keep a set of points and condenser
handy but am confident you will never have
to use them or touch that distributer again
- other than maybe throw a timing light on
it every 10 years. On a 3 cyl particularly,
that's a good thing.
Post back in 5 or 10 years, or, if this
winter tractor was one that you had to
fudge with/clean the points every fall let
us know after a couple of seasons.
I do have a couple of thoughts/questions
for you:
What coil are you using? You do know that
oem coils require a resister, right? The
wire that provides power to the coil is 3
lengths of resistive wire folded back and
forth then wrapped together to drop the
voltage.
When I installed EI I did not know about
that wire - never put a VM on it - and
assumed it was full voltage to the coil. My
tractor did run beautifully that way. It
was a few years later when the wrapping on
that wire started to fray that I figured
this out and replaced that wire with a non
resistive one and installed a 'full 12V
coil'. It didn't make any difference in how
the tractor ran but is something to be
aware of when making a fair and accurate
judgement of the system.

Yes, I was aware of the resistor wire. I replaced the wire and
the coil with a true 12V coil. No external resistor required.
This EI (1231) doesn't let you use the dust shield in the distributor.
It's nice and clean in there now, I hope it stays that way.

(quoted from post at 01:04:12 10/02/18) Guilty as charged JMOR. I kept the points though. Just in case.
I made a coil wire out of salvaged parts I had here but ordered new.
It's my snow plow tractor. More important here than there I presume.

Click to expand...

......and I'm really thankful of that!

Whoever thought up that distrib nestled location on the 3 cyl jobs was a sadist...

15 or so years ago I installed a Pertronix on my 134 gas 2000. It has occasionally sat for over 6 months at a time between being fired up and, as long as it has a good charge on the battery, she has fired up every time. Let the battery get a little low on voltage from extended cranking and the Pertronix will not light off. I have the points and condenser in a box somewhere in the shop out of superstition (like a good spare tire, if'n ya got one then it is never needed).

My Scout has had a Pertronix for over 30 years so they will last. Just do not let the magnet ring get loose and rub the pickup. Had that happen on my brother's 442 one time and that killed it quick. He did not loctite the nuts holding the ring under the rotor cap and it loosened up and dropped down.

I was given a old 1974 BMW 2002 years ago and I needed alot of work to be a driver again, so I cleaned it up and got it running and installed a pertonics kit in it and never had an issue with it. Seems to me that it is a good upgrade and quality parts.