electronic ignition on 640

MI-Bill

Member
I converted my 640 and my 8N to 12 Volt with electronic ignition. after converting I felt they ran better than ever before. Ignitions both failed. I did not know they do not like good copper spark plug wire. now directions call for resistance wires. I went through a couple of electronic units. This fall, I went back to points and condenser and was impressed they both seemed to run better than ever before.. I did not want to replace spark plug wires after buying what were considered to be high quality copper wire sets.
 
Yea, the modules in EI do not like the RFI produced by copper core plug wires. That's why ( now) they tell you to use suppression wires.

You will not tell the difference between points and EI on a tractor engine as long as you properly maintain the points system. And most folks do not, hence the popularity of EI.
75 Tips
 
Thanks for the tip. Glad you have your tractors running well. Back in the 40's through the 60's, these tractors ran for hours and hours on early style ignition systems. Like Bruce said, you have to maintain them.
 

Think of it like this - if you are lighting a can of gasoline it does not make a difference what size match you use to touch it off. All you need is a spark sufficient to get it going - the gasoline knows what to do from there.
 
The EI is nice because you don't have to maintain it.
I don't notice any difference in performance, but didn't expect to.
Down side for EI to me is the wait to get replacement parts.
I can buy points in town today or next day. EI takes a week or so.
Then there's the cost difference.
 
I was a fan of EI for a long time.
I put it in a tractor and know for a fact that the distributer cap didn't need to come off for 13 years. It's probably still going but I've lost track of it now.
Any more that's not good enough. Because you still have to dink with the plugs and wires and the carb and bad gas.
Get a diesel and forget about all that stuff.
Diesels have they're issues; mostly in that they stink and they're noisy.
But they run. They always run.
My latest one. I painted it yesterday.


cvphoto3642.jpg
 
Whatever setup is used, they're ALL good and work fine, when properly wired AND PM is kept up. That is the key. If the wiring is incorrect on any system, it will cause failure issues. Many do not know how to wire and maintain a 6V/POS GRN system and think going to a 12V or an EI will fix it. You may or may not get it to work but then that fails to determine the true root cause problem. Normally 6V uses a generator and a VR; normally 12V uses an alternator and no VR; and EI eliminates the points, but, if any system fails to be correctly wired, you are looking at $$$ to fix. Do it right the 1st time. Get the manuals and if you don't know what you're doing, get some help, don't guess.

Tim *PloughNman* Daley(MI)
 
Last winter I changed the points in dad's 4000. They were 18 years old. They still worked but was getting hard to start.
 

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