That is what if it failed. What if you say break a drive shaft at 150 miles from home, what do you do then? I know it would be easier to carry an extra set of points and condenser it is just that it “might fail” is not a reason not to do something. I would like to know if there is a real advantage or disadvantage to installing solid state ignition. I have had an issue with my distributor for several years and have tried everything recommended to me on the chat forum to no avail. I have just gotten to this point where I am ready to try something else.
Yes, there is an advantage to electronic ignition. The advantage is that it does not degrade as you drive, and requires adjustment less often. The carburetor requires adjustment less often too because the initial timing and dwell are not changing over time and affecting idle speed etc. That is a fairly significant advantage, but it is the only one.
An electronic conversion won't fix a bad distributor. All it does is replace a mechanical switch (the points) with a transistor. If it runs like crap with points, it will run like crap with an electronic conversion.
I did the distributor cap, rotor, wires, and spark plugs but to no advantage. The car is still in his shop and I think I will ask him to rebuild the distributor. He actually said he could do that but he preferred the solid state. I don't want to solve one problem with another
That is not how it works. An electronic conversion does NOT save you from rebuilding the distributor and if a mechanic is telling you that, you need a different mechanic. It might save you from changing a loose bushing, but that is hardly ever the primary issue. The vacuum and centrifugal advance in a distributor need to work and work properly and it makes no difference if points or a transistor is used to switch the coil. Centrifugal advance should be disassembled, lubricated, and then checked to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to be doing. Vacuum advance also needs to be checked for leaks, and also that it advances in the way the shop manual says it should. If the electronic conversion is some little two wire module that all fits inside the distributor, then it depends on the same GROUND (probably a wire) to work that the points depended on. It is amazing how few people check that.
The downside of conversions on 6 volt cars, if there is one, is that it might fail to start in a low battery situation when you might get lucky if you had points. A 6 volt battery is 6.3 volts nominally, and will pull down when cranking. 5 volts maybe? Maybe even less? Maybe as bad as 4.5 when it chugs because the battery is low? That is the compression stroke, right when the ignition needs to fire. That isn't much voltage to work with for something electronic. A typical silicon transistor drops 0.7 volts across one junction, and there are going to be several transistors in an electronic ignition. A conscientious designer would probably find a way around that, but it's not like he has 10 or so volts to work with in the worst case like he does on a 12 volt car. Until it is proven not to be a problem, I am not converting any 6 volt cars.
