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> History Repeats Itself.... Ignition Question, Coil Overheats, Have Mallory, What's best solution
DrinkMan
post Jul 11 2019, 04:04 PM
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A couple of nights ago, we were taking the 914 out for an evening drive to dinner. It didn't feel quite right and there were more backfires than normal (we are used to a few burbles under decel) and all of a sudden, it just died about 8 miles from home. We were unable to restart the car and were getting no spark.

We decided to sleep on it. I researched the history of the car from the previous owner here (he did a great job documenting his activities) and found this was not the first time with these symptoms.

Overheat Coil

No Spark

So, the next morning, before troubleshooting, we tried to start the car and it started fine. After just about 2 minutes of running (pulling it out of the garage and turning it around to put it into a more service friendly position), I shut it down. The coil felt pretty warm to the touch. Looks like we had an overheating coil (yellow Accel 8140 with external ballast resistor giving a total resistance of about 3 ohms). I replaced the coil with another 3 ohm coil I had laying around without the ballast resistor.

While we were at it, we cleaned the contacts in the distributor cap and rotor (Mallory 45xxxxx, same as mentioned in the thread above). Now, with the new coil, we restarted the yellow beast. Wow, not only did it fire up faster than ever, but on our test drive, all the backfires were gone and the performance was the best we have ever experienced in our 2 years of ownership.

All this background is leading up to my question - I noted that our car's Previous Owner (not Dreaded Previous Owner, but Great Previous Owner) had to replace his Mallory at one point. Mallory is no longer available and my question is - what is the right solution if I want to replace the ignition system? (2056 with dual Weber 40's)

I have a Compu-Fire DIS ignition system on our Opel and love it. It was originally designed for VW and the Opel used the same Bosch distributor and works well on it. However, my research here on 914World does not show it as a very popular option (advance curves on Bosch 009 not great for 2056?). And on the same track, if the 009 advance curves for Compu-Fire aren't great, wouldn't that mean the Pertronix is also not the desired solution?

I hope this question is not as bad as asking what is the right oil type (I'll never ask that on a forum, I know better) as I assume there may be some difference of opinion on best ignition solution for a 914. The 123 system is tempting but my search did not see it as a preferred system.

Thoughts? (btw, I'm a little reluctant to drive the 914 great distances for a while. My wife suggested I buy a pair of epoxy filled 3 ohm coils and carry with us as spares)



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jim_hoyland
post Jul 11 2019, 08:06 PM
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Get that VIN ?
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I used the Mallory Unilite for 10 years. Try replacing the distributers optical Sensor first. You do keep a spare ? And, install a Bosch blue coil with the new sensor.
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