electrical and ignition Best Ignition Parts

[TR]

Ok, I have searched and read and I am now more confused than before.

 

Is there a list of ignition parts for a ’73 tii that are well made, reliable and available in 2013?  Points, condenser, rotor, cap, coil etc. ?

 

The Bosch condenser (02 102) I got at my local parts store looks right but the plastic connector is square and the hole in the dizzy is round.  Was the Hack Mechanic’s solution of filing the plastic to fit the round hole OK?  Is the correct part still available?  I read that Bosch’s quality has gone down over the years.  My condenser is made in Turkey.  What’s an ’02 owner to do??? J

 

For example: Coils.  Posts here talk about black, blue, red, silver (with red sticker)…is it just personal preference or is there a clear choice for street use/reliable weekend driver?

 

Is there an FAQ list of good reliable items?

 

PS. Once I get this car running I will be opening the bottle in the pic.  FAQers are welcome!

 

TR

 

[TobyB]

Many people are using a pertronix (me included) with an otherwise stock system with good results.

 

I prefer the Bremi cap and rotor, but Bosch works for stock ignitions

 

Bosch wires were awful a while back- don't know if they're any better now.

 

t

[jgerock]

I installed a new set of wires from LaJolla Independent that seems to be of better quality than the previous Bosch Premium wire set I installed in 2009.

 

Look here for good stuff.  http://www.bimmerdoc.com/parts-finder

[Buckeye]

http://www.kingsbornewires.com/category.sc?categoryId=2

[TR]

Thanks guys.  Hopefully others will add their thoughts/info and I did not mean for it to be just tii related but also applicable to 2002s in general.

 

Wow, LoJolla has a great site and I'll just need to plan for a week's shipping if I order from them.  If getting the correct basic ignition parts continues to be a hassle I may have to join the pertronix club.

 

Lastly, the pic in my original post has terrible colors.  I retook the photo so the FAQ color police can confirm it is Colorado.

 

[JohnS]

What distributor are you running in your '73 tii?  Is it the original 008?  or a 002?  The original 008 distributor takes a different cap (tab up type) compared with the 002 (tab down type).  For the coil, what kind are you currently running?  The stock setup for a tii was a Bosch super coil (equivalant to red, but were black back in the day) with the 1.8 ohm external ballast resistor.  That coil setup has the advantage of having a boost mechanism (increased ignition voltage) during starting.  I really like the wires available from Kingsborne wireworks.  If you call Kingsborne, they can supply you with a good set of wires in a plastic loom tube.  But you have to call them and ask for it because it isn't shown in their online catalog.  Then you mount it using parts available from BMW that were from the big-six cars like the 3.0 cs coupes.

 

Edited September 24, 2013 by JohnS

[Dev02]

Curious; are you looking for what is/was stock for your car, or what most people are running and having a good experience with?

[TR]

John - pretty much stock 73 tii.  I'm the 2nd owner,  drove it for 10 yrs and then stored it for 20.  This dist has a tab that sticks up and mates with the cap so I gather that makes it an 008.  Blue coil with a red diamond shape sticker that says "Super....."  I checked the resistor and it measured 1.8 ohms.  I like the setup for your wires but thought that packing the wires tightly together and parallel induced electrical currents?  Obviously not.

 

Dev - I guess I'm looking for what works well and does not permanently alter the car.  Performance/reliability improvements are fine up to a point.  I plan to make it a weekend/driver's car.  For example, I plan to put an in-tank fuel pump in the car but make sure it can be undone if wanted.  

[tlapham]

I use pertronix, red coil, and the MSD 6A and it has worked very well for me, the tii is a rocket. But it is very sensitive to spark plug wire issues.

 

FYI, any coil can be wired for higher voltage while starting. 12volts from starter bypasses the resistor to the coil...

Edited September 25, 2013 by tlapham

[bnam]

I use Hotspark with Red coil.  Works great.  Some distis have square hole for the points wire pass thru and others have round.  Round plugs wll fit in the square holes but not vice versa.  Some points are left handed others are right handed.

 

Get rid of the points.

[bob02]

TR,  looks like you're using a blue coil(internal resistor) with a 1.8ohm ballast resistor. The blue coil does not need an external resistor.

 

   Good luck,

 

  Bob

[TR]

Bob - thanks!  I was just trying to figure that out.  My guess is that the car came with the 1.8 resistor (for the factory coil?) and when the blue coil was installed the resistor was simply reconnected.  It sounds like a red coil should be on my list of upgrades.

 

TR

[JohnS]

Yes, it looks like you're running the stock 008 distributor (keep that for sure, the number should be readable on the side of the distributor body).  If it's worn out, have it rebuilt by Advanced Distributors (~$200 for rebuild).  I would swap out the blue coil for a red one, or just bypass the ballast resistor and continue to use the blue coil.  Right now you're getting a slightly weak spark by using the resistor with teh blue coil.  As for caps and rotors, I prefer the ones from Bremi, but Bosch is fine too.  I found Bremi rotors through AutoHausAZ and Bremi caps through Pelican Parts.  Unfortunately, neither vendor carried both (cap and rotor) Bremi parts.  As far as ignition, I like the Pertronix because they have been trouble-free for many years on all of my cars.  But, you will actually get slightly better performance from standard points when compared with a Pertronix style trigger (just ask Jeff Schlemmer at Advanced Distributors if you don't believe me).  I'm not sure about the square rubber plug on the condensor fitting into the round hole, I'll check some of my spare condensors when I get home.  I think that you can still get the correct ones with the round plug, but will have to check (I just purchased a few because I'll be switching back to points soon).  Good luck, 

John

[JohnS]

 

 

FYI, any coil can be wired for higher voltage while starting. 12volts from starter bypasses the resistor to the coil...

 

Yes, but you need to make sure that you have the proper resistor that's matched to the coil so that the coil doesn't overheat during normal running.  You can only boost a coil that's designed to operate at less than the standard running voltage.  The red coil is designed to run at around 10 volts and is boosted to 12+ volts during starting.

[TR]

Great info!  I'll bypass the 1.8 resistor while I have the blue coil.

 

One comment about wires:  I have a set made by STI that is for 2002s but the plug and coil wires are too long.  I was told the insulator boots "just screw on/off so cutting the wires to make them shorter is no problem and then just screw on the insulator".  Sounds simple enough but I'll wait till I have a spare set before it try it.  I gather a few FAQrs make their own wires.  Is it easy and reliable to shorten plug wires?