DeTomaso Mailing List: September 97, Message #222
     



From: Whatcop@aol.com

Subject: Allison Ignition

Date: Sat, 6 Sep 1997 17:00:35 -0400 (EDT)



Nancy, I appreciate the feedback about your ignition system; and it sounds

different from the Allison stuff on my 74L.



My 'black box' really is mostly black, not red, with cooling fins and a red

and silver Allison label across the center of it.  The coil is all red [and I

am assuming the stock coils were not red].  The pickup inside the distributor

is magnetic, no points, etc.  The only other info I have is a summary sheet

from the previous owner that lists "Allison Electronic Ignition".  I guess I

should hope that mine is different from yours so that I do not have the same

inconvenient crap-out that yours had.  You may just have been unlucky enough

to get one of those random early failures way off the left side of the

average life bell curve.



Seems like the pickup wires is a common failure mode, at least in my

experience:  Between 1988 and 1994 I had two Maserati Biturbos in sequence,

and put lots of miles on them as daily drivers.  As I recall, about every

30,000 miles or so the pickup wires inside the distributor would fail

(insulation crumbled off); the cars started to run lousy, but got me home.

 Must have been the hot environment, or just the Italians learning best

design and manufacturing practices from Lucas.  The problems I had with those

cars were always minor, but almost invariably electrical.............



chris bupp/whatcop







==============================================================================