123 ignition questions

[jbcollier]

I have a 123 ignition + distributor in my crossflow. Worked great until last year. I was on a trip and the tach suddenly went low. No change in running that I noticed at the time. I subsequently found that it was missing at high rpm. Lucas Sport coils are always suspect so I tried a different oil-filled coil just in case it was shorting internally. I also checked all the wires/cap/plugs/etc. All good. Another tach also to no effect. I dropped by in my old mechanical distributor with Pertronix. All issues disappeared.

A few questions:

- 123 ignition says a 3 ohm coil should be fine in a 4 cylinder but it will also run coils with a lower impedance. Those of you happy with it out there, are you running a lower impedance coil?

- given it was running fine and then it wasn’t, I suspect something went pop in the works. Anyone know where to send it for testing, and hopefully repair?

[dakazman]

  Does it have a magnetic pickup ?
I’m unfamiliar with 123 and pertronics but I had my fair share of distributor problems.
Dakazman

[Hachille]

I have a 123 ignition + distributor in my crossflow. Worked great until last year. I was on a trip and the tach suddenly went low. No change in running that I noticed at the time. I subsequently found that it was missing at high rpm. Lucas Sport coils are always suspect so I tried a different oil-filled coil just in case it was shorting internally. I also checked all the wires/cap/plugs/etc. All good. Another tach also to no effect. I dropped by in my old mechanical distributor with Pertronix. All issues disappeared.

A few questions:

- 123 ignition says a 3 ohm coil should be fine in a 4 cylinder but it will also run coils with a lower impedance. Those of you happy with it out there, are you running a lower impedance coil?

- given it was running fine and then it wasn’t, I suspect something went pop in the works. Anyone know where to send it for testing, and hopefully repair?

I use with my 123, a 1.5ohm coil.
It is one of the interest with these transitorized systems. Have a more intense electric arc. The only problem I've had with the 123 ignition is when the battery wears out. This causes ignition cuts. But it also gives the information that the battery is at the end of its life.

[jbcollier]

Do you mean the vehicle’s battery?  Or, that the distributor has an internal battery?

[Hachille]

The vehicle battery 

[jbcollier]

Ah.  I had that with a Lucas Rita system on my Ducati single.  Absolutely stab in the dark timing below 10v.

The battery on the Europa is just fine though.