Originally Posted By: Number_35
I have had a couple of electronic ignition failures over the years - in an '82 Mazda GLC, and an '80 Plymouth Volare wagon.
However, the Mazda was in the late 80s, and the Volare in the mid-90s. I guess I'm coming up on 20 years without ignition system problems - point made.
When I worked as an oil change/tune-up tech many years ago, my coworkers told me about a weird one they'd seen before I worked there. A Honda Civic had come in (I worked there in 1980, so the Civic couldn't have been more than a few years old) running terribly. They put it on the scope and got a firing pattern like a V8. It turned out the rubbing block on the points had worn down, leaving deposits on the distributor cam. So, the cam had its regular four lobes, and four secondary false lobes made of deposits. The deposits on the cam were built up enough to open the points slightly in mid-cycle and fire the plugs (weakly, and at the wrong time). Apparently someone had converted the system to hybrid electronic ignition, where the points served only as a mechanical switch, carrying only low current. Therefore, the point faces remained good, and the points didn't have to be changed ... until the rubbing block wore down. Told to me as true, but sounds like a Gus story out of Popular Science.
Yup, I had a couple slant 6 powered Mopars from that era-carried a spare ballast resistor & ignition module in the glovebox! Good thing they were easy to change!