Do any of you guy's use the Crane XR-I? I bought a Buick that has this ignition system, and I think it's about to get chucked into the garbage:Smarty: I personally have never found setting/checking dwell on a set of breaker points that much of a problem. On the other hand, I have had two bad experiences with the Pertronix system, and now I'm questioning if this Crane set up is the root of all evil with the way this car run's? Look's like it's time to call Dan Jensen, have him pick me up a distributor at the local parts store, then throw it in his distributor machine. Looking for thought's/opinions on the Crane unit? Failure with your unit,and characteristics?
I'm not familiar with the Crane unit, but had excellent results with my pertroniks lobe sensor since we put it in the car in 2000. Until this year at Stanton. Very weird timing so I advanced the dist by giving it a big twist toward more advance. Car seemed to love it but wouldn't go over 5500 RPM where it started breaking up. Only thing different about this year is I ran a new wire to supply full 12 volts this summer bypassing the resistor wire. Never did get a straight answer on whether it needs the full 12v (like and HEI conversion) or leave the resistor in the circuit. Bought the M & H conversion and will be putting it in at Indy at the Fall Olds Nationals. Going to try a ballast resistor in the present setup first and see if that settles down the timing fluctuations I'm seeing now. The engineers at M & H said definitely do NOT run the full 12v to their unit, but weren't sure about the Pertroniks. Not going to enter the car in the bracket race competition, but will probably enter the King of the Hill race for the show poodles.
I know of 2 Buicks that have had problems with the Crane unit. I have had good results with the 1st design pertronix that uses the magnetic ring under the rotor cap in the white car but but mixed results in a couple other cars. I have had no luck with the lobe sensing pertronix. I have run the Mallory Unilite since 1996 in the convertible with no problems other than a voltage spike blew the LED in 1999. After that I bought the filter designed for it and had no problems. I have had good results with the Mallory in several other cars. The Mallory needs the stock resistor wire in place.
I too have run the Mallory Unilite in both of my cars and my son's Z. I've never had an issue with it and I've used it for about 10-15 years now.
I run a lobe sensing Pertronix, and the tech told me that it works best with a full 12 volts. No issues in the past 4 years. PS - I use their coil too.
I have the XR-i in the GT-37. Installed it before the June Martin race so I haven't had it very long. But I haven't had any issues. The wiring harness in the engine (and under the dash for that matter) was hacked up pretty good before I got the car. But I was able to figure out how to wire it up. Of course now that I say this, I'm sure to have some issues the next time I try to fire the car up.:rant: Dave, I have the pertronix in my W-31. It's the 1181 LSCC IIRC (basically the one without the ring under the cap). I've had zero issues with it for the 2-3 years I've had it. You do in fact need to bypass the resistance wire and run a full 12 volts. I'm also running the black pertronix coil.
Currently have Crane XR-i with no problems. Have used Pertronix with no problems. No problems using points either; single or dual. Make sure all your chassis and engine grounds are intact, and that the body and chassis are indeed grounded to the battery ground. Sometimes these get left off of restored cars. It's an easy thing to overlook. Poor grounds can cause many wierd problems. :TU:
It ran its best with the MSD 6Al triggering the Pertroniks coil. Have another new coil that I'm taking to Indy, see if we can sort it out. Wish we had the track today, may need a few T n T runs to get it right. One thing for sure, there won't be any good low et's this weekend with this weather. Small blocks really suffer a lot more than big blocks since they rely on top end hp. Maybe Pertroniks just sucks? For whatever reason, this car ate points very rapidly when we were driving it in the summers when new. Actually had to have it towed in to an Olds dealer when the original factory points went out at 5000 miles. Covered under warranty. Was nice to deal with service departments of dealers back then. Also nice that we could buy complete distributors from Olds salvage sales for $1.50 each in unlimited quantities. I was buying 10 at a time and doing lots of tuneups even for some people I didn't know using the points, condenser, cap and rotor from them and just throw away the rest of it.
Interesting. I always thought it was really brilliant that Ford had the distributor in the front of the engine, then changed the hood opening to hinge at the front.....Okay......... Also thought the cross ram Mopars were just to get the carburetors out in reach easily over the fenders. :laugh: :laugh: So one says 12v the other says no, use the resistor wire.......Maybe we should establish a focus group and take a USA today poll? Locked and loaded for Indy, only 2 hours late. Will be pulling out as soon as I stop sweating so much. Took a shower and it's worse. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..See ya Monday. :bglasses:
According to the conversation George N. had with the Crane techs, a constant 12volts will burn out the XR-i unit. Check out the thread: XR-i Points kit
I run the crane-- love it!! It needs full 12 volts and the matching coil..... Easy set up- rev limiter- whats not to love???? Mine even survived a flood 2 years ago, still works. Are you trying to use a MSD or something else with it ???? It's ment to be a stand alone ignition. No stupid computers or timing retards, or other lamo bull$hit??? Just asking..
I have the Crane unit in my 68 Skylark. No problems. When I was installing it I called a tech at Crane because the instuctions were confusing. He told me to wire it directly to the + and - on the coil. I did. It worked.
The instructions for when we put it in Harry's gsx said a resistance wire or ballast resister is required for his xr-I crane unit( his wound up in the trash for its gremlins). I was talking with another buick guy last weekend at Union grove dragway that use to have the crane and the rev limiter fouled up in his crane unit and would not allow above 2000 rpm no matter where it was set. I run the pertronix igniter II with their 45,000 volt coil and wires with no problems what so ever and I could feel the differance right after switching from points.In fact it is on it's second engine.
