Reply To: Electronic Ignition Options

HI Bryan et al….

I shall say simply that the 123 system has always worked for me. I had one on my MGB for very many years (at least 20 or so years) and 11 years on our Normale.  Always works never  ever any  trouble whatsoever.   On occasions i have helped folk with their 123  ignition. the claimed fault s have been:  difficult starting, iffy idling and even a propensity for the engine to judder under load (with the clutch being blamed).  In each and every case the problem was resolved by using copper cored HT leads and plug caps with the standard 5K resistor within.

Carbon cored plug leads eventually break down and the  HT voltage declines accordingly. Unless the decline of the cables is really serious (in which case you will see  blue flashes within the cables with the engine running on a dark night)  my very best advice to all Traction owners would be – dump the carbon cored cables  as soon as you can and install copper cored HT leads  including – of course- the feed from coil to distributor cap.