Show us some odd ignitions from the past

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halifaxhops

halifaxhops

It's going to get stupid around here!
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Some I have
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What do you mean OLD Jacobs ?
I remember buying Jacobs like it was yesterday ! Lol
 
I never had one, but how 'bout a Tung Sol THRYATRON (that's a vacuum tube) triggered CD ignition?

A thyratron is a special vacuum tube which is similar in nature in the vacuum tube world, as the SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) is in the solid state world. This was used "early on" for some of the first experiments in CD ignition

http://www.worldphaco.com/uploads/THE_TUNG_SOL_EI-4_CDI_UNIT_FROM_MOTION_Inc..pdf

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Not at all exotic but the equivalent of cursive and float shift double clutching in today’s world. EMP back up plan.
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Another odd one is the old "Du-coil"---dual points, dual coils, one coil fires 4, the other coil fires 4

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Wow, it's been years since I've seen one of those! Is that a Mallory, too?
 
No I think "they were their own brand."

Mallory made a setup called "Rev-Pol" (reverse polarity) that was somewhat similar, and in fact may have been the origin or their "famous" 4 lobe cam
 
mbaird said:
What do you mean OLD Jacobs ?
I remember buying Jacobs like it was yesterday ! Lol
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Yes! I mean “OLD” lol!
Back then that was an amazing system but not cheap by any means. If you had a “pro- street” you had Jacobs or a big fat SUPER COIL by Accel. They added like 20hp after 60mph I was told. Lo!
 
Syleng1 said:
You mean like the old Jacobs systems from the late 80’sView attachment 1715803053
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I had a REALLY REALLY bad attitude about "old Jacobs" for a very long time

In the early 70's they marketed a small device they called something like a "see dee' or "cee dee" or something, incinuating it was CDI. Not only was it NOT, it was almost a scam. Friend of mine took it apart, and there was something like 2 components in the thing. JUNK

This was a very small unit looked vaguely like the top of an ignition coil. I can find nothing on these
 
not uncommon.... but the LT1/LT4 Corvette Opti-spark...
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67Dart273 said:
I had a REALLY REALLY bad attitude about "old Jacobs" for a very long time

In the early 70's they marketed a small device they called something like a "see dee' or "cee dee" or something, incinuating it was CDI. Not only was it NOT, it was almost a scam. Friend of mine took it apart, and there was something like 2 components in the thing. JUNK

This was a very small unit looked vaguely like the top of an ignition coil. I can find nothing on these
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EDIT!!! FOUND IT!!! "Judson See Dee". IT IS NOT a "CDI" and in fact is not really an ignition at all. I believe it had about TWO components, and may have been nothing more than a diode clamp

If you examine the included wiring diagram, you will see this can NOT BE a CD, NOR IS IT a transistor switch!!! The breaker points wire REMAINS CONNECTED to the coil NEG

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archive...n/Judson SeeDee Installation Instructions.pdf

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pishta said:
MARK TEN B..on my Mazda! i dont think it works as the switch IN/OUT doesnt seem to do anything but when its CD OUT, voltage to the coil is like 5v and when its CD IN it reads 12....not ~ 300 i was expecting. i can hear the high frequency switching of the transistors maybe the big storage cap is bad.
Poptronics-1974-09-OCR-Page-0017.pdf
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You won't see 300 volts across the coil on a multimeter... the 1.5 uF cap is charged to several hundred volts and "dumped" into the coil when the SCR fires. That pulse is very short and a meter can't respond to it. Now an oscilloscope will tell a different story.
Also, if your existing points/coil ignition is doing its job, there shouldn't be any dramatic difference at idle...
 
DrCharles said:
You won't see 300 volts across the coil on a multimeter... the 1.5 uF cap is charged to several hundred volts and "dumped" into the coil when the SCR fires. That pulse is very short and a meter can't respond to it. Now an oscilloscope will tell a different story.
Also, if your existing points/coil ignition is doing its job, there shouldn't be any dramatic difference at idle...
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Plus/ and............the Coil HV does not show up until the engine is running. The pulse is so short and the duty cycle so short that I doubt it will show much on a meter. Even so, it well may be that the cap is bad. You could easily buy and replace it. Mouser used to fill small orders, I don't remember about DigiKey
 
would it kill a regular O-scopes probes..300V? I got 2 scopes (analog HP and digital Rigol) and and extra set of probes. I was probing it on the running motor. Wonder why it was seeing 5 and 12? That 1.5 uf cap is as big as a beer can bottom and glued tight.
 
I would not think so. But probes CAN go bad and you can blow them up.

The pulse is very narrow maybe it's "hidden" by a trigger delay and only displaying the residual wave. You can check the probe "redneck" of course first by the cal output on the scope. Then set it up for the highest range on DC and read the cap with the CD powered and engine off. You should be able to read the DC of the charged cap, just a straight line trace fro 0V, unconnected, to 300V, at the cap +. Double check the accuracy by simply reading the cap with your multimeter under same condition
 
I do know on the heathkit auto scopes you have to adjust the trigger for them too work right during calibration.
 
Cool history lesson.

Thanks.
 
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