Electronic distributors?

[Jim B PEI]

I ran across this on the Studebaker Forum:
"Note that since DUI now offers an HEI conversion for the rare Jeep Hurricane Six (among many other vehicles); maybe they can be talked into an HEI setup for the 1951-64 Stude V8. "
(this is from the site  http://www.performancedistributors.com/  and the D.U.I stands for Davis Unified Distributors)

Just offhand since I'm always curious, if the Super Hurricane is (I think) the 230 OHC 6 derived from the 226 flathead, is there any possibility that this 'could' interchange with a Kaiser-Frazer 226 engine? If so, I suppose that the whole engine would have to be converted to 12Volt...or would it? I just found out recently that overdrive 6V can be run on 12V without a problem, supposedly.

[joefrazer]

An electronic setup...Pertronix...is available for the 226. A friend tried it in his 49F with poor results. We ended up swapping back to the original distributor half way thru the trip and the car ran fine.

Distributors in the 226 and 230 differ enough that nothing interchanges.

[84RabbitGTI]

I also had bad results with Pertronix "6-V positive ground" electronic ignition in that it didn't work at all. I would not even fire once. I only kept the coil and re-installed the old points and it runs fine again. 

[Fid]

My cars  have all run just fine with the original style points/condensor set up. No reason to change them in my opinion.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The old points/condenser/coil ignition system has one other thing going for it.  During atomic bomb tests in the 1950's it was found that unless a car was damaged by the effects of the bomb, you could get into it after the test and drive it away with no problems.  Electronic and transistorized ignitions lose their transistors and any IC chips they have from the Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) effect of an atomic blast.  I came up with this tidbit doing research in the late 1990's for an OLD CARS WEEKLY article I wrote about old cars and A-bomb tests.

[Jim B PEI]

I had heard that there were bad results with Pertronix+ 6 Volt ANYTHING, and these posts made me remember some of the Studebaker comments (ie %$#$&@@#$!!!!!)

Shame, as it could seem to be a good way, IF properly designed and engineered, to always get a good hot spark on a 6 volt system. I have a feeling that they (Pertronix) didn't do the necessary homework and must have made six volts systems (and non-modern 12 volt systems) the cheap and easy way by just dropping the voltage with a diode or something, and everyone knows how well THAT works on 6 volt alternators and battery chargers compared to doing it right from the get go...ie, better than nothing but not what it should be.

[kenneth]

Done the right way, electronic ignition is far better than the old style with points,You will get better starting and the engine will run smother!

[Jim B PEI]

Agreed!  But Pertronix has issues on some products....