Ignition system options Options

[Charles Freeborn]

Greetings all,
My car has an Electromotive HPV-1 crank fire ignition that seems to have given up the ghost. The car will run for a few minutes (badly - backfiring out exhaust stumbling) and then die altogether. No spark. When it's stone cold it'll rinse and repeat. It doesn't run long enough to have engine heat be the cause, so I fear it's a component inside that's shorting and causing it to fail. The circuitry is all potted so I can't easily see if there are any fried bits.
I've gone through the install countless times, new crank sensor, ground wires up the wazoo but no love. The company is long gone, so factory service NA.
Does anyone know of a repair or replacement service for these, is it worth it, or should I chuck it all and start over? I honestly don't know if the distributor drive gears are still in the engine. It was all built by Fat Performance in the '90's, but they seem to be gone too.
TIA,
-C

[slivel]

Greetings all,
My car has an Electromotive HPV-1 crank fire ignition that seems to have given up the ghost. The car will run for a few minutes (badly - backfiring out exhaust stumbling) and then die altogether. No spark. When it's stone cold it'll rinse and repeat. It doesn't run long enough to have engine heat be the cause, so I fear it's a component inside that's shorting and causing it to fail. The circuitry is all potted so I can't easily see if there are any fried bits.
I've gone through the install countless times, new crank sensor, ground wires up the wazoo but no love. The company is long gone, so factory service NA.
Does anyone know of a repair or replacement service for these, is it worth it, or should I chuck it all and start over? I honestly don't know if the distributor drive gears are still in the engine. It was all built by Fat Performance in the '90's, but they seem to be gone too.
TIA,
-C

Maybe you can find one on eBay or try swapping out the plug-in coil packs. Probably low chance of success but if one of the coil packs is shorted, it might cause overheating in the main circuitry.

I have two of these on my twin plug six 914 and will someday be in the same position when one or both fail. Mine have been on my car for more than 20 years so I might be on borrowed time. At the track I always had one or two spare coil packs. Only ever needed to replace a coil pack one time.