Volvo 140 » Crane Breakerless Ignition

The Crane Fireball 700 is the best thing I have done to upgrade my B-18 PV 544. I installed the "brain" inside the car, to the firewall, so it is not visible from the engine bay. Makes for a clean installation, just some wires coming through the firewall.
I no longer have to reset the points and timing on my old sloppy distributor, in fact I check my timing fairly often and it hasn't moved in over a year! Great product.

Works GREAT!

If you have a tach, and are having a bit of "weirdness" try using a "ballast resistor" on your coil wire. This is abailable at your local auto parts store, ask for a ignition ballast resistor from a mid 90s Doge caravan.

There are some upgrades that are so good that you'd have to be either nuts or totally committed to originality not to add them to your old machine. The breakerless system is one of them

The conventional points-switched system was first improved with the add-on "CDI" (Capacitive Discharge System) as exemplified by the Radio Shack Archer Kit. It kept the points in place but they carried almost no current, serving as more of a signal generator triggering a massive pulse from the box to the standard ignition coil. No more pitted points but the cam follower fiber block still wore and timing eventually got out of whack.

The "Chopper Wheel" system solves that problem. There is simply no wear. Additionally it negates most if not all variance that might otherwise be caused by wobble in the distributor shaft.

Cons? I think that there is some innacuracy in the 1800E Tach's high rpm tracking. I'd like to see something on that issue.

peter strasser