Does anybody know what type of ignition this is? (1976 280C 110 motor)

[Tomas7]

This is a picture of the distributor and the ignition system in my car. Has anybody seen this type of distributor before and does anybody know the brand?

Thanks in advance.

[Frank Reiner]

T7:

The Allison ignition is now sold as the Crane XR700. It uses an optical trigger (the slotted wheel & pickup module in the distributor).
The distributor itself is an OEM Bosch unit. M110 distributors for the 1975-6 model years used centrifugal advance only, no vacuum.

[Tomas7]

Originally Posted by Frank Reiner

T7:

The Allison ignition is now sold as the Crane XR700. It uses an optical trigger (the slotted wheel & pickup module in the distributor).
The distributor itself is an OEM Bosch unit. M110 distributors for the 1975-6 model years used centrifugal advance only, no vacuum.

Aha!
Thank you very much FR!

[Benz Dr.]

That distributor looks like the dog's breakfast. I would check to see if the mechanical advance is working by twisting the rotor clockwise. If it moves and then springs back into position it's working. Oil the felt wick under the rotor with a couple drops of oil to keep it working if it's free.

If it's not moving freely ( which wouldn't surprise me ) you might be able to free it up but everything looks so corroded it might not be easy to do.

Without mechanical advance the engine will lack power.

[Tomas7]

Originally Posted by Benz Dr.

That distributor looks like the dog's breakfast. I would check to see if the mechanical advance is working by twisting the rotor clockwise. If it moves and then springs back into position it's working. Oil the felt wick under the rotor with a couple drops of oil to keep it working if it's free.

If it's not moving freely ( which wouldn't surprise me ) you might be able to free it up but everything looks so corroded it might not be easy to do.

Without mechanical advance the engine will lack power.

I will take the distributor out and disassemble it and clean it. It looks like it's pretty straight forward.

Thank you.

[Mike D]

If/when the ignition system fails, they're pretty robust so it's not too likely, replace it with either a Pertronix or its knock off (Hot Spark).

The Crane/Allison is a good unit but is is a bit more complex and requires additional wiring. My opinion, mind you but I am a firm believer of the fewer electrical circuits, the better. Less places for the smoke to leak out, doncha know.

I ran the Crane for years in my wife's 250C and was happy. I managed to toast the optical pickup when I was trying to use it as a stand-alone trigger for my MegaSquirt conversion but that is a different kettle of fish and has nothing to do with the product's longevity.

[Idle]

I think Chrysler was the first to either use this type of system or at least the first to start putting it on everything. This was around 1974 or 1975. It was advertised as a sort of space age thingy. No points to wear! No dwell to set! Gosh, what will they think of next?

But with the system being 'optical' it had one small problem and that was dirt. If the light source or receiver got dirty it messed up your signal and then you car ran poorly. These were so new, and there was so little information out there about them, when they messed up you could (and a lot of people did) go to a junk yard, pull an old style distributor and just swap the whole thing out.

This was a poor way of dealing with what was a simple problem but a lot of home mechanics were not well educated on all of this new fangled electronic stuff. It didn't help that the auto companies were pushing this as something only a NASA Engineer could understand.

But you could buy an aftermarket kit for your old car and it was a drop in sort of thing. I did this and it worked well until it didn't. Then I took it out and went back to the old points systems. One of these drop ins is what you are looking at.

These were replaced by the magnetic pick-up system that was much more trouble free. I don't think anyone today uses an optical ignition system and I don't think anyone has for about the last 30 years.

[FreddMersaid]

**************.com sells them. And will have info for you.