So I am in the process of doing an Electronic Ignition conversion from stovebolt on my 1950 Plymouth's flathead 6. I have the distributor installed, I've run the wiring and hooked everything up according to the manual. I try and crank it up and there is no spark. I leave the key in the run position and am poking around underneath the hood to confirm everything is wired properly, and after about 2 minutes, the damned coil starts billowing smoke and acts like it is going to catch fire. I pulled the distributor cap off, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong there. What am I dealing with here? A Faulty Coil? Something failed in the distributor? Or is god telling me to buy a prius? John
I don't know what Stovebolt uses for an electronic module, but I think when you left on the ignition without the car running you saturated the coil and burned it up. If the distributor were in the right position so that the module was completing the circuit than the coil was building energy and no way to release it, so it burned up instead.
bE GLAD TO HELP , HOWEVER NEED A LOT MORE INFORMATION. If the system smokes and gets hot its either wired up wrong or the system has way too low of resistance. Tom Langdon at Stovebold builds some good stuff and is a good guy so i would start with a call to Tom. If for some reason you cant catch Tom at Stove bolt call me and we can work it out and make er run. 1-888-809-3835 toll free........tell the girls you have a distributor problem....
The Langdon distributor is an S-10 unit. I agree with Bubba, give Tom a call. He is willing to discuss issues and walk you through things to get it right.
I really appreciate it folks, turns out that I was an idiot and wired it wrong. Rather embarr***ing since i have an electrical engineering degree (mental note, don't work in the dark). John
Just put the smoke back in and start again. I just couldn't resist writing that. I have done the same thing as you, and even though I am not an EE, I have worked with a lot of high tech electronics and thought I was being careful. **** happens.
Thanks but i am a guy thta just tagged onm to that thread for knowledge. Anyone know about this electronic ign swap?
Langdon sold me a dist and coil for my six and I followed his instructions and the car performed so well and had so much more power on hills, he is reasonable on prices which is the best part.
Toms web site for this conversion........ http://www.stoveboltengineco.com/ Good guy to do business with...........