High Energy Distributor Rotor Options

[HarveyH]

Every now and the, someone asks about modified distributor rotors for use with high energy ignitions. The higher voltage and current produced by high-energy ignition systems has been known to burn out the internal resistor in distributor rotors. Of course, these failures always seem to occur at the most inopportune times, so it’s a good idea to be ready. You can buy modified rotors from Aircooled.net for less than $20, or make your own if you’re feeling cheap. I seem to remember that a while back Aircooled.net had this process posted on their website, but I can’t find it. I’m cheap, and I’m also ready for an arts and crafts project, so I’m going to make up a couple and document the process.

Harvey

Things you’ll need:
Rotor, new or used. Since the primary failure of a rotor is in the internal resistor, if the tip and contact aren’t too badly burned, they can be polished up and re-used.
Soldering iron, solder, and flux.
#12 wire. AWG #12 wire is rated at 20 Amps, so that should be more than enough.
Epoxy. Since there is no real structural use here, choice of an epoxy is not too critical. Generally, longer cure times tend to indicate higher bond strength and higher temperature ratings.

[HarveyH]

Strip the insulation off of about 1-1/2” of #12 stranded wire. Tin the wire and clean off any residual soldering flux.

A tip on soldering:
Wipe the tip of the iron with a damp cloth or sponge to remove old, oxidized solder.
Apply a small amount of fresh solder to the tip of the iron.
Place the iron against your work.
Allow the work to heat a few seconds and feed fresh solder onto the work piece allowing the work piece to melt the solder. Don’t apply solder directly onto the iron to make the connection.
Remove the iron. Feed a small amount of fresh solder onto the tip to prevent the tip from oxidizing.
Allow the work piece to cool.
Clean any residual flux using Isopropyl alcohol or a commercial flux remover.

The tinned wire is stiff, so you’ll have to carefully cut it to length. Slide it back under the center contact and through the hole in the center contact connection tab. Lower the front end of the wire and slide it forward into the hole in the rotor tip connection tab. There is no apparent stress relief in the original construction of the rotor, and the cavity was filled solidly with rigid epoxy, so I never really thought that stress relief bends were an issue in this assembly.