New wireless distributor plate

mkmskm

mkmskm

Senior Member
Has anyone tried the distributor plates that Brattons sell which have the brass ring and no wire between the upper and lower, just the feeler that slides on the brass ring? I'm not a fan of the wire between the two plates, can always lead to trouble but at least when its connected its a solid connection (even when its ground), whereas I worry about a sliding connection.
 
These wireless plates have been around for at least 25 years. I have seen several versions done by several vendors with some better quality then others. Some used an acorn nut to rub on the ring and others use a L shaped blade. They all should work as long as the correct full contact is made correctly from the top plate to the lower plate. This system makes it easy to pull everthing apart to inspect during point / contact block changing and should be fool proof.

After saying all of that there is also nothing wrong with the original Henry Ford pig tail either. If the insulated braided wire is in good shape and the correct length to withstand the plate movement without binding or shorting. The pig tail wire connections should be soldered to the plates. Most people now make the pigtail wire a little longer then original for some extra margin of safety for flexing. If you can go either way. Wireless or pigtail, for the annual use of the average Model A your car it should go for many years.......
 
i have one & all is good . just be sure you brass stinger is in contact with the brass plate ..
 
I am using the wireless lower plate on three of my cars. I only use the wireless lower plate with original style points. This setup uses an acorn nut attached to the points and has been fail safe for many years. I can see the possibility of problems with the L shape connecter that must be used with modern points. I am also not a fan of modern points, I never had anything but problems and they are hell to adjust!!!!!
 
A lot of people have used them, and they have been okay. I had a terrible experience with them. I used the one for the modern point and condenser set up. I Couldn't keep the brass tab in contact with the bottom plate no matter what i did. I spent all summer of 2009 trying to get it to work, and every time i got on the road the car would miss the whole time. After that i went back to the pigtail wire until i switched to electronic ignition.
 
mkmskm said:
Has anyone tried the distributor plates that Brattons sell which have the brass ring and no wire between the upper and lower, just the feeler that slides on the brass ring? I'm not a fan of the wire between the two plates, can always lead to trouble but at least when its connected its a solid connection (even when its ground), whereas I worry about a sliding connection.
Click to expand...
I use them all the time. It may come to some day that people might not know that the plates had a wire. I never have any trouble with the wireless rebuild kits Snyder's sells.
 
Bought a coupe with the wireless already installed. Maybe a shoddy version but nothing but trouble as it wouldn't keep tension so couldn't run. Pitched it for the wire type with no problems. Like someone said, done carefully, it's a for-sure connection.
 
mkmskm said:
Has anyone tried the distributor plates that Brattons sell which have the brass ring and no wire between the upper and lower, just the feeler that slides on the brass ring? I'm not a fan of the wire between the two plates, can always lead to trouble but at least when its connected its a solid connection (even when its ground), whereas I worry about a sliding connection.
Click to expand...

Most folks have no understanding or clear picture of current flow, resistance, heat, arcing, etc. Although I'd never seen or heard of this design when the same question was raised on the old Fordbarn about ten years ago, I responded the design was doomed to failure due to arcing and constant deterioration from that arcing until finally resulting in complete failure. About six months later folks began reporting failures just as I described.

The bottom line is that the design may serve you well for a period of time and that length of time will vary due to a series or variables but it will indeed fail! Of course if you only drive your car a couple thousand miles a year you could get lucky and survive it for several years. By contrast the original design when properly done (proper length wire, etc.) will last for decades. A good suggestion I first heard from Vince Falter was the use or fine stranded wire for greater flexibility of the pigtail. However I've run the more common wire for over 50k miles (long before the logical suggestion) and NEVER had a failure.
 
I have the Nurex design distributor ignition system on two of our cars, with no problems todate. I do understand conditions of design that could result in electrical resistance with the bent brass strip of the original design. The replacement brass strip shown in the Snyder's Catalog at present, has a 90 degree bend on the bolt end which will prevent the brush strip from rotating. The depiction in the catalog shows a brad or button on the contact brush end which I thought would be a marked improvement. When I received my replacement brush strip that I ordered, there was no actual brad or contact button as shown in the catalog, other than the brass strip had been deformed at the contact point with a center punch type of tool. This upset distortion of the brass strip will envaribly wear through, or cause arcing on brass plate. If in actuality a brass on similar type of wear contact was installed on the brass strip, problems would be minimized.
 
I wasn't happy with the wireless lower plate at all. Not reliable. I've since replaced it with a new lower plate, longer pigtail and modern points. It's working well so far.
Rog
 
Thanks for the input, and reinforcing my decision to order the kit that just has the long pigtail. That has never given me problems in the past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top