elec. ignition for 115 engine 4 cylinder

[ptmar]

i have a 123 body chasis with 115 engine i have a distributor marked BOSCH 0231170237 and JFU4. im looking for an elec. ignition conversion kit i asked pertronix but they dont have a kit for it. i dont know about cranes cam. anyone have a similar distributor that changed them to elec. ignition. any other brand ?? suggestions aside from pertronix and cranes??

[t walgamuth]

well i dont know from experience, but i bet if you could cross ref. the number you would find a kit for a vw four cylinder or a saab or any number of cars equipped with bosch equiipment would work.

i will look in my old chiltons and see if there are some dist numbers i can cross.

ok i did it. in my book, which covers from 72-81, there was not a dist for mb listed with the number you gave. there was a number that were close. the closest ended in 137 instead of 237. what year is your car? i looked at vw, volvo and bmw. the one with the closest number was bmw. but i know that there was an awful lot of interchangability as i once bought points for my opel sportwagen (85) that were for a porsche four when i was on the road in south carolina. i also used parts from a vw and older mercedes bosch distributor when i rebuilt the dist in my 74 bmw bavaria. i took springs and advance weights from at least two different dist to create a dist with pre emmission advance characteristics. they arent very complicated and are all mechanical.

if all else fails you might just order a kit for a bmw four cyl of the same era and try it out, you know, if they will return it if it isnt right. prob that wont work, as they never return electirical parts but this being a conversion, there is no way for you to put your old part in the new box and return it so they might.


good luck

tom w

[Arthur Dalton]

Crane XR-700

Part# 700-0231.

Flawless Optical conversion.

[Matt L]

I had a Crane ignition on my bike, twice. The first time it failed, I mailed the module to Florida and got a new one in less than a week. After the second failure, I went back to points. Blue Streak is the only way to go with points, if you can get them for the application.

I did once convert a Saab to electronic ignition, but that was using a distributor and box from a newer car. It had K-jetronic, so no extra contacts in the distributor to worry about.

I had another Saab with D-jetronic, which stayed as points, since there was never a Saab made with D-jetronic and electronic ignition (to my knowledge, anyway).

[ptmar]

i have a 115 engine 123 chasis / body 1980 year. i would just try to buy a crane xr 700 as what Arthur recommend. hopefully it would not fail .

[ptmari]

hi im just wondering if a pertronix model 1847v will work with my bosch 0231170237 distributor. i dont see my bosch number for this kit but it says will work with alot of bosch distributor and most of the distributor that are listed for this model are bosch number starting 02311.... one even listed for 0231170137, i dont know anything about bosch numbers how they are related but i just wondering if a difference between the last 4 or 5 numbers really matters????


by the way i have a mercedes w123 model 1979 4 cylinder 200 gas i believe an asian or european model. most or all amereican w123 model have a 230 engine i believe.

if you think it wont work should i change my distributor that is listed for a pertronix kit. what bosch number distributor u think is the closest for my 4 cylinder engine. thanks

[WillR]

There seem to be arguments for and against the Crane and Pertronix electronic ignition systems for your car.

I have a 1974 w114 250 sedan with a 2.3 litre six in it. So, it is not a four cylinder, but my research and reasoning ought to be valid, to an extent. After all, a Bosch distributor is a Bosch distributor.

I decided on the Crane optical system over the Pertronix induction pickup for the distributor. Someone on the web commented that the optical system is more tolerant of a worn distributor than an induction pickup. Now, I have not heard of such problems with the Pertronix systems, but I decided to 'play it safe' and go with the Crane.

Installation took a half day, as the instructions stated. The biggest challenge was getting the distributor shaft to stop at top dead centre, aligned with the mark on the distributor case. A socket on the crankshaft with a very long handle would have helped, but I just used the starter motor and trial and error.

The Crane system went in with a CD ignition setup, which I highly recommend. I used the MSD 'Stacker' system. That installs incredibly easily, in about an hour. It produces a series of high voltage square-wave pulses (multiple sparks) on top of your existing coil's bell-shaped pulse. Should the MSD box fail, your old ignition system will still work (something that people worry about with solid state systems -- they fail at the beginning, or last forever).

If you use the MSD with a points system, the points may fail prematurely, as I experienced on a very busy road one day.

With the MSD system, be sure to keep your spark plug wires separated. Get some plastic separaters for a few bucks from an auto supply shop. If the wires cross (such as near the distributor cap), there will be cross-talk, and the engine will run poorly. Again, I learned by experience. The newly installed MSD box had the engine running poorly; I immediately recalled the advice, and I straightened out the problem.

Install these two devices, and your engine will have discernably more pep, something that you will feel right away. With the MSD box installed, remember to open up the spark gap by about 15%. You can also play with spark plug temperatures to see what suits your car best.

I found installing the MSD and Crane setup to be very satisfying. I am no hot shot mechanic, yet I got both sorted relatively quickly and could really tell the difference.

Best of luck.

Will
Sydney, Australia

[nachi11744]

BOSCH part #s for electronic ignition kits

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Hello,
Here are Bosch parts numbers for the ignition kits to convert MB Bosch distributors.
M115 from 1972 to 1980: 0227100920 fits # 0231170081,138,208,237,238

M180 and M114: 0227100911 fits # 0231187001,004,005

M110 carb: 0227100914 fits # 0231309001&0231310002

M110 D-Jet: 0227100915 fits # 0231306004&USA only 0231306002

There was a factory transistorized distributor for the M115 engine used in USA 230 engines # 0237002024 but it is an emissions control type unit.

The part # for the M189 300SE dizzy cap 1235520044.
AFAIK, these numbers were still in use in the nineties, but I have no idea if Bosch still uses these numbers or has updated to new numbers because i do not have any car that is newer than 1989
Have a good week.
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Nachi11744