THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

The units installed and working great. Installation was pretty straightforward, though minor modifications are required depending on who and what's been changed over the years.
The most challenging part for me was mounting the bracket. it's an uncomfortable, two handed type of thing which took longer than expected. The supplied bolt was too long and pushed into the spring cup. I swapped it for a shorter bolt once I found the interference.

Things I've noticed after driving for a day:

Starts faster
Way less smoke out of the exhaust
Exhaust smells VERY different
I had to increase my idle speeds slightly, and the idle seems a strange bit choppy. Almost like a minor miss. I see no signs of a miss with my tach or timing light. Not sure the cause. Could simply be a new rhythm of the engine with the double spark.
The power curve is very different. I seem to have lost low end power to some degree, but really see an improvement in mid to high rpm band. In fact, I broke traction on a throttled turn! I may give the timing a slight bump beyond 0 and listen for ping.

I'm quite happy with the investment.

Mine arrived yesterday. Once I finish re-doing the fuel tank inside and out I'll start that project. But then again with tank out I might replace the starter now. I got a new one from the seller shipped from SAV. He said the original was dragging but I load checked the batteries on the aft one was toast. Fresh battery, fresh cranking power.

idstitch wrote:Mine arrived yesterday. Once I finish re-doing the fuel tank inside and out I'll start that project. But then again with tank out I might replace the starter now. I got a new one from the seller shipped from SAV. He said the original was dragging but I load checked the batteries on the aft one was toast. Fresh battery, fresh cranking power.

Just a FYI, if you only changed one battery you will likely have problems down the road. Battery's need to be a matched set least wise they will not charge equally. Another common cause of battery failure is the practice of center tapping for a 12v power source, this also causes uneven charges leading to premature battery failure.

Ed's correct. You might want to read this (if you haven't already), especially the bits about how even new matched pairs should be maintained, to avoid a potential battery death like you just experienced.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=8245

The PinzSSI ignition draws less than an amp (.6). That small amount should not decrease the life of either battery or cause charging problems.

I agree that batteries should be replaced in pairs and charged individually at least once a year. There is a thread on that proceedure.

Back to Audiocontr. Looking forward to doing mine seeing as yours turned out well.

surprising to hear you are having idle issues. Once done with mine it idle absolutely smooth. I have never seen it idle that smooth before. No noticeable starting difference but the exhaust smell decrease was incredible. I am wanting to take it through emissions for a test to see how it reads now. Always was a bit tricky for Tony to get it to pass AZ emissions testing.

I am also toying with the idea of playing with the timing a little. I find myself driving on the offroad setting all the time. I used to run a little more advance prior to the install.

I'm cautious to locate the offending cylinder, with the sensitivity of the unit. Can I pop off a wire while it's running like the old system?

Yes, for a short test it won't matter. Very high voltage, be careful! Also, being waste spark, you might cut out 2 cylinders.

I played a bit and was able to improve the scenario dramatically. Is it possible to install the sensor 180 degrees out of phase? I rotated the sensor housing half a turn and it runs a lot better. I bumped it a couple of degrees advanced and it runs even better still.

I removed and reinstalled each plug wire, just to make sure they were secure.

Otherwise all is well now!

Interesting..

I had issues before I went to the PinzSSI but since then have not gotten the Pinz running correctly. I checked the valves and had the carbs rebuilt and synced and finally found a bad new spark plug. Since then it start and runs fine but I seem to have no top end power. Was going to try fuel next but maybe I still do not have this thing dialed in correctly.. no time to play with it lately though.

Back in the "good ole days", before many had access to timing lights, a shade tree mechanic would "power time" an engine - keep advancing the timing until you got knocking under hard load (wide open throttle), then back off a few degrees. This gives generally good performance assuming the spark advance is working properly (in the Pinz, only mechanical advance - no vacuum advance). If the timing is too retarded you won't get much power at higher rpms. Try advancing the timing (rotate the dizzy counter clockwise, or however the SSI can be adjusted) a bit at a time and see if you get any improvement.

If the SSI is "keyed" for a particular mounting to the dizzy shaft, then if the timing is off you may have to consider that the dizzy shaft itself is a tooth or two off from where it should be where it is driven by the camshaft. This will upset things from an expectation of where the shaft should be aligned compared to crankshaft indexing.

The SSI 'distributor' can be rotated to advance/retard the timing. It has it's own timing light built in, a small LED that lights up when the sensor is triggered.

Due to the wasted spark system it does not even need to be matched for a compression stroke, just any old TDC will do.

Very easy to set the timing.

The PinzSSI module is not keyed for any particular position on the block, unlike the OEM distributor. You can be off by 180 cam degrees and still set the timing. This is how I recommend to install-
1- Fully insert the module into the block until it locks into the driven shaft
2- Rotate the module to your desired position, snug pinch clamp bolt
3- Rotate the engine until the pointer lines up with the notch on the pulley (TDC)
4- Loosen the Phillips screw on the slotted disc and rotate it until the LED comes on (key on), tighten screw
5- Rotate the engine again until the pointer lines up with the notch on the pulley (TDC)
6- Loosen clamp, rotate the module until the LED comes on, snug clamp bolt
7- Run engine for a few seconds
8- Verify timing and tighten pinch bolt
You may or may not have to advance the timing slightly to get the engine to run best. The module advances the timing from TDC to normal advance once the engine starts, but sometimes minor adjustments are needed initially, just like on any gas engine. Once the timing is set it should be good for many miles, if not permanently.

My SSI unit is rotated from the one in the installation pictures, but the LED light came on when adjusting it and that's where I locked it in and it runs great. Is it possible that the timing disc isn't always coordinated to the spline on the drive when the units are made? Since the advance curve is completely programmed once it knows where TDC is, the exterior rotation of the SSI body wouldn't really matter if it was different on different units. FWIW, my SSI unit is the earlier one with the rotary dial to choose the advance curve.