Re: Powerspark / Aldon ignition
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:51 pm
It is too many decades past for me to revisit all of the theory learned - and used - before and when in the RAF, suffice to say that none of the 'planes I built 'magic' boxes for ever fell from the sky. We called them magic (or 'black' boxes, since they were in fact black, though not in fact "black boxes").
Where was I...we were given a circuit diagram, a large one, D size if I remember (possibly E?, they were LARGE!), all of the necessary components and then proceeded to build these boxes for (RAF)Nimrods), obviously built to milspec, tested, checked etc because failure of one of these boxes while the 'plane was in the air would be embarrassing.
Now, putting aside all the aforementioned about, inductance, coils, foils, remanence, hysteresis or whatever else was mentioned...what I have found over the years is that stock distributor systems work just fine when new and continue to work just fine if/when maintained properly - up to the point where wear requires them to be rebuilt - and once that is done, they work just fine again.
Over the decades I have also noodled around with a variety of aftermarket products such as Aldon, Pertronix, MSD etc and have found a couple of "things" common to all of these. For them to work they need the other 'bits' of the electrical system to be in good order - all of the 'bits'.
If/when these aftermarket products fail I open them up and am amazed to the point of being alarmed that (some of them) worked at all. The design is typically adequate but the build QUALITY is somewhat variable, ranging from, solidly done to "I wonder how that ever worked at all".
So getting back to my second paragraph, which I suggest you ignore (as well as most of this post) success of these items tended to come down to build quality. Unfortunately there is little we can do to determine that quality when buying that shiny new box - fortunately the 'net nows provides SOME level of relief via product reviews but even then...
So, first check the basics, ALL of the basics, then go from there...
Sorry, my stream of consciousness turned into a tsunami.
Where was I...we were given a circuit diagram, a large one, D size if I remember (possibly E?, they were LARGE!), all of the necessary components and then proceeded to build these boxes for (RAF)Nimrods), obviously built to milspec, tested, checked etc because failure of one of these boxes while the 'plane was in the air would be embarrassing.
Now, putting aside all the aforementioned about, inductance, coils, foils, remanence, hysteresis or whatever else was mentioned...what I have found over the years is that stock distributor systems work just fine when new and continue to work just fine if/when maintained properly - up to the point where wear requires them to be rebuilt - and once that is done, they work just fine again.
Over the decades I have also noodled around with a variety of aftermarket products such as Aldon, Pertronix, MSD etc and have found a couple of "things" common to all of these. For them to work they need the other 'bits' of the electrical system to be in good order - all of the 'bits'.
If/when these aftermarket products fail I open them up and am amazed to the point of being alarmed that (some of them) worked at all. The design is typically adequate but the build QUALITY is somewhat variable, ranging from, solidly done to "I wonder how that ever worked at all".
So getting back to my second paragraph, which I suggest you ignore (as well as most of this post) success of these items tended to come down to build quality. Unfortunately there is little we can do to determine that quality when buying that shiny new box - fortunately the 'net nows provides SOME level of relief via product reviews but even then...
So, first check the basics, ALL of the basics, then go from there...
Sorry, my stream of consciousness turned into a tsunami.