Electronic Ignition

[609albert]

anyone out their had an experience changing over their mack fire truck to electronic ignition, where to purchase, is it worth the expense, hard to do,etc.I have a LS85

[Firemack]

Albert

I switched a B95 over last year, Bought the parts from John Brillman, Brillman co. 540-477-4112. Runs great.

Look up the thread here on BMT, I explained how I did the whole tune up and included the set up of the electronic ignition.

Good Luck

Firemack

[engine3]

About 5 years ago we converted our 57' B-125 fire engine to a Pertronics Electronic Ignition (San Dimas CA). The conversion kit works great. But make sure your distributors are in good shape before buying anything. I marked the location of the distributor rotors, and removed one at a time. Next remove the points and turn the distributor shaft by hand. If you feel any sticky spots consider rebushing or replacing the unit. it turns out that our 707 thermodyne distributors were the same as the ones in a chevy stove bolt six. If the distributors are in good shape, find the manufacturer tag. Write down the manufacturer and serial number. Pertronix has a great reference index that goes way back. You'll need one kit per distributor. As I remember, they cost about $75 each. Our original distributors were in good condition with only 42,000 miles on them. The kit was installed in about 30 minutes with basic hand tools. I had already converted the engine to a negative ground. However I think the kit was compatible with positive ground systems. Making the plug wires took alot more time than converting the distributors. However with a couple hours of patience you'll be pleased with the results. I used suppression core wire, no alternator whine in the stereo system, from Speed o Motive (Covina Ca). The alternator conversion is another story. The wire came in a roll. I don't remember what the wire and brass terminals cost I think it was under $125. I cut it to length and intaled the brass terminals with a tool. The tool was about $20 from Speed O Motive. It was a piece of hard plastic that on one side you used, with a razor, to strip the outer shield. Then the tool was flipped over and placed in a bench vice to be used as acrimping die. If you make your own plug wires out of suppression core you really need the tool. Cut the outer shield too much and the terminal connection will fail. Last time I looked you can still get the plug wire terminals and tool from Jegs or Summit Racing. I don't know how much it costs to have a custom set of plug wires made by some one else. But it may be worth it to find out. I will definately contact Firemack's suggested vendor for replacement caps and rotors. The caps and rotors I got from Autozone didn't have brass terminals. Good Luck.

[Firemack]

Engine 3

Good Summary, the parts I got from Brillman were Pertronix, and he also has high quality rotor and cap with brass instead of the cheaper autozone/delco parts which now use aluminum and are poorly made. Brillman also makes the full ignition wire sets for the 707, for about $40 per set, so saves time and makes them perfect. I like the idea of switching to negative ground if you need to run other electronics.

Firemack