Points ignition? Any advantages?

[ap72]

Is points ignition better than your typical hall sensor setup in any way?

[emsvitil]

Only if there's an EMP.........

[F-BIRD'88]

You can fix points at the side of the road with your wifes finger nail file.
And re-gap them with one of her safety pins as a gauge.

[peejay]

Which is good, because you'll have to

I remember having to dick with the points every morning in order to get the car to start.

I think I looked at the spark plugs in my '02 Volvo about 30k ago...

[Zmechanic]

I see no practical advantages over a modern solid state ignition. Barring manufacturing defects/fluke happenings, then the solid state is pretty much guaranteed to need less maintenance or attention. Versus points that pit, corrode, and need adjusting.

That being said, if you want the cool, nostalgia feel with points, then do it!

[ap72]

Don't really need nostalgia. The points I had in my Mgb I just adjusted with a dwell meter. Much easier/simpler. I was just curious from a performance standpoint if they had any desirable benefit. Looks like I'm going solid state.

Thanks.

[Walter R. Malik]

Don't really need nostalgia. The points I had in my Mgb I just adjusted with a dwell meter. Much easier/simpler. I was just curious from a performance standpoint if they had any desirable benefit. Looks like I'm going solid state.

Thanks.

If the vehicle already has points, the best thing you can do is make it so those points do not NEED to pass any electrical current and simply act as a switch, using a newer ignition box type ignition.

We do it all the time with nostalgia type cars and use a Ford "Thick Film ignition", (TFI 35368 ACCEL), from a 94 mustang using the points simply as a trigger which will connect to the spout terminal.
That ignition is small and fits inside most air cleaners.

[Geoff2]

Don't see any reason to use points, which is probably why new cars come with electronic ign. Since the car companies save money wherever they can, but are willing to pay extra for elec ign, they must think that elec ign is better than points.
Two guarantees with points:
[1] They will pit & wear over time
[2] The rubbing block will wear, retarding the ign causing power loss & increased fuel consumption.

Another possibility depending on the engine & the points is points bounce at increased rpms, which causes misfires & power loss.

Elec igns are extremely reliable & trouble free, with the GM HEI being the pick of the bunch in my opinion. They give precise timing for 000s of miles. They have the added advantage of being able to run larger plug gaps, for more reliable ign.

[pamotorman]

I used points and a dwell extender on lots of race engines. the dwell extender closed the points electronically as soon as they opened. this way you got full coil saturation at high RPMs

[user-23911]

I had that too about 35 years ago. I managed to get my 272 out to 6000 before it started miss firing. Home built of course because you couldn't buy those things back then..not here anyway.
They try to tell you that the points wear away but it's actually the rubbing block that wears and the points gap gets smaller, not bigger.

[Walter R. Malik]

Don't see any reason to use points, which is probably why new cars come with electronic ign. Since the car companies save money wherever they can, but are willing to pay extra for elec ign, they must think that elec ign is better than points.
Two guarantees with points:
[1] They will pit & wear over time
[2] The rubbing block will wear, retarding the ign causing power loss & increased fuel consumption.

Another possibility depending on the engine & the points is points bounce at increased rpms, which causes misfires & power loss.

Elec igns are extremely reliable & trouble free, with the GM HEI being the pick of the bunch in my opinion. They give precise timing for 000s of miles. They have the added advantage of being able to run larger plug gaps, for more reliable ign.

I think you are a bit short sided and only know anything about what you have witnessed.
SO,tell us all what you would do with an old timer vehicle where there is no Magnetic or Hall Effect units available for that distributor.
Examples; early MG, Triumph, Coventry Climax, Studebaker, Hudson, etc. Almost ANYTHING before 1955.

[user-23911]

MSD of course.
But what it stands for is
MY
Spark's
Disappeared.


I got stuck at the side of the road once with one of their products........never again.
It was a dual curve ignition for CNG.....made by Autronic controls?.....who also made the MSDs back then.
Luckily the points were triggering it and I never went anywhere without all my tools.

[Circlotron]

The one situation I can think of where a points setup might be better is in a vehicle with a 6 volt battery, especially when the battery voltage gets down to 5 volts during cranking. Almost all ignition modules use an IGBT to switch the coil current and these have a voltage drop of typically 1.5-2 volts. That only leaves you 3-4 volts for the coil on that cold dark wet and windy night. A good set of points might only drop 0.2-0.3 volts. When people first started putting home-made electronic ignitions on their cars you could have a case that points were more reliable. Nowadays a car can go it's entire life without a second thought about the ignition stuff on the low voltage side of the coil.

[Circlotron]

MSD of course.
I got stuck at the side of the road once with one of their products........never again.

I got stuck inside a car wash.

[Truckedup]

I have a 68 Chevy truck with points ignition....it gets driven about 2000 miles a year and the points give me no problems so it'll stay that way...