Stromberg E-Fire

[Firechickenzz]

Anyone here used a Stromberg E-Fire successfully on a 6V system?

Debating on whether to go electronic or convert to crab distributor.

[hueyhoolihan]

i recently bought an e-fire 6v positive ground unit for my '41 but it wasn't a success.
couldn't get any spark out of it. noticed the rotor would fall off the shaft...made a video of it falling off and sent it to stromberg. they eventually sent me a new rotor that was identical to the one i had and fell off the shaft in the same manner rather than testing it out first, that it did indeed fit the shaft. of course it still didn't work.

when contacted for the second time, they wanted me, at my expense, to send the whole unit back to them for inspection...i thought that their choice to simply send an identical rotor costing them practically nothing this first time, without verifying that it fit the rest of the distributor was a poor choice...it would have cost them nothing and they would have found that they had a engineering problem that they were unaware of. but no, they went the easy, lazy, cheap route with me, their customer, that had already spent more than half a thousand dollars on their product with nothing to show for it and spent the time and trouble to make a video exemplifying the problem and just sent me another of the little cheap plastic rotors.

the whole thing is now laying on the shelf and will soon be thrown away

BTW, their sparkplug wire set is an abomination WRT to engineering too. it was thrown away soon after purchase.

there are people, and a participant on this forum, that have found them useful.

i have a couple of vintage cars with fully electronic distributors that i installed successfully and have found them to be quite advantageous, but they were engineered and sold by a different company.

[rockfla]

May I inquire as to why you want to switch, even to a crab??? Send your coil to Skip Haney and your current distributor to one of many here on the barn including Skip, CharlieNY, Michael at Third Gen OR even me and have it gone through and set up correctly and you should be good to go with NO issues or need to switch.

[slowforty]

The stock stuff works well if you follow rockflas' instructions

[hueyhoolihan]

i recently purchased, installed and am now running, without issue this distributor on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/157055019002

it appears that there are a number of others available from the same seller in similar condition...

as is evident the price (about $250 with delivery and the excessive California sales tax) was very reasonable, had new points, set properly, and a new rotor. there was no coil, no sparkplug wires, no caps (neither inner nor outer) nor condenser or gasket. for now i'm running the old ones which will soon be replaced.

it was at my door within a week. all-in-all am very satisfied. i have yet to make any changes to it.

[petehoovie]

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Originally Posted by hueyhoolihan

i recently purchased, installed and am now running, without issue this distributor on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/157055019002

it appears that there are a number of others available from the same seller in similar condition...

as is evident the price (about $250 with delivery and the excessive California sales tax) was very reasonable, had new points, set properly, and a new rotor. there was no coil, no sparkplug wires, no caps (neither inner nor outer) nor condenser or gasket. for now i'm running the old ones which will soon be replaced.

it was at my door within a week. all-in-all am very satisfied. i have yet to make any changes to it.

[cas3]

I looked at the ebay listing and I see new points, adjusted, tested, but I don't see any mention of this being done on a distributor machine which is a must for me

[aussie merc]

modern electronics and older electrical systems are fraught with danger as electronics dont survive long with spikes and mechanical generators and regs are spike city Not saying it cant be done just do your research and upgrade the wiring and components required often it will require spike catchers[capacitor /Zener diodes etc] and a wiring rework with relays done well they will work well and give long service . a lot of work that points dont require added with you may have to upgrade your battery as electronics have what is called a threshold [minimal voltage ] required to work and this must be maintained when cranking Your choice

[hueyhoolihan]

Originally Posted by aussie merc

modern electronics and older electrical systems are fraught with danger as electronics dont survive long with spikes and mechanical generators and regs are spike city Not saying it cant be done just do your research and upgrade the wiring and components required often it will require spike catchers[capacitor /Zener diodes etc] and a wiring rework with relays done well they will work well and give long service . a lot of work that points dont require added with you may have to upgrade your battery as electronics have what is called a threshold [minimal voltage ] required to work and this must be maintained when cranking Your choice

this is what (in red above), in part, i'm attributing the e-fire failure to. as i've run fully electronic distributors on my 1953 MGTD for over 6000 miles now without so much as a hiccup and about 3000 on my '67 Jaguar Mk2 with the same results. but they have 12v electrical systems (although they both have generators, not alternators), and as stated previously, they weren't made by Stromberg.

i dearly wish the company that makes my other electronic distributors made one for a '41 deluxe.

[aussie merc]

try a pertronix kit but you will need the whole kit [ insert ,coil, leads.]not just the insert but still you have to maintain that threshold voltage but at least you can still return the dizzy to points in an afternoon if needed .

[tubman]

Originally Posted by aussie merc

try a pertronix kit but you will need the whole kit [ insert ,coil, leads.]not just the insert but still you have to maintain that threshold voltage but at least you can still return the dizzy to points in an afternoon if needed .

Why do I always see this when someone is trying to justify an electronic ignition? To me it's a condemnation, not a justification.

When was the last time you heard of anyone recommend running points because they can always put a Peronix back in in an afternoon? Or, take an extra electronic distributor along?

[ndnchf]

My '35 Fordor came with an efire distributor installed. It works fine, but would prefer it had the original distributor.

[Kens 36]

Originally Posted by Firechickenzz

Debating on whether to go electronic or convert to crab distributor.

Sent you an email.

Ken

[Pech33]

I have one in a box that idled great, backfired as you increased RPM’s, will sell it cheap! PM me if interested, I want to clean out my garage. Skip Haney got me going again.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by slowforty

The stock stuff works well if you follow rockflas' instructions

i sent my coil to skip, and had a dizzy rebuilt, 6 volts in my 36 pickup and no trouble for 12 years

[Firechickenzz]

Originally Posted by rockfla

May I inquire as to why you want to switch, even to a crab??? Send your coil to Skip Haney and your current distributor to one of many here on the barn including Skip, CharlieNY, Michael at Third Gen OR even me and have it gone through and set up correctly and you should be good to go with NO issues or need to switch.

My reason to switch was around ease of maintenance and parts availability, plus I already have a crab distributor that came with some other parts I bought.

[Fritz]

If you want reliability, low maintenance, and want to use that crab you have, I have been running a crab with a Pertronix module on 6v positive ground for over 10 years. I have not looked back, since it has run flawlessly. You have to use the coil Pertronix recommends and follow their instructions to a T.

I got tired of new parts for the stock ignition failing out of the box and leaving me stranded. There seem to be good parts available now from just a couple places like Skip Haney and Third Gen Auto, but I was unaware of them back when I switched. I still like Pertronix.