New Guy Here With an Old 320

[thisismatt]

Ah, yeah...

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I think the best place to go to figure out the 320 positive ground wiring theory is going to be an MG or Austin Healey book (or forum). They share a ton of design similarities with early Datsuns.

 

If your solenoid is bad, you may consider swapping in a solenoid from an early Sprite (62-65 ish, not bugeye) They are neat because they have a button on them so you can crank the engine from the engine bay, which is useful when working on older cars/trucks.

 

Here's an early Sprite/Midget wiring diagram that shows the solenoid wiring.

[22350]

On 3/7/2022 at 12:36 PM, wayno said:

I think we all need to remember this is a positive ground truck with the original generator/regulator, you cannot use a matchbox in this truck, believe me when I tell you I have tried, but the matchbox case is a dedicated ground that cannot be reversed.

Now if he switches over to an alternator(neg ground), then a matchbox can be used, this is why I posted the link to that thread about MG distributors, they did have positive ground electronic ignition and it bolts right in, mine in my truck is a Crane setup that can be wired both ways(positive or negative ground).

My engine has never started better since going to electronic ignition, I tried and succeeded using a Pertronix 1741, but I had to modify the unit to make it fit in the 320 distributor, but I had to cut the mount plate to mount it, and when I accidently double clicked 2 units and smoked them I gave up on this route, I was just using clips that connected on the battery for testing and if you accidently touch the clip fast twice the unit is dead, and one can not return a modified dead unit either, that double clicking does not happen when using a key in the ignition.

Here are photos of the distributor with the Pertronix mounted, and it does not work positive ground, I was trying to make something for my negative ground I U320, but I gave up on that one, it still has points, but I bought a electronic unit for it.

 

 

 

Here is the distributor I bought for the RHD U320 as the distributor is right under the steering column, they do make electronic ignition with stock looking distributor caps in case the Aussies are reading this thread.

 

 

 

@wayno  what british distributor work for the E1 engines?