GQ Patrol gets Pertronix electronic ignition upgrade

Points ignition is the automotive equivalent of Latin – so outdated nobody out there can understand them, and there’s no bloody reason to have them around anyway.

Unfortunately, Nissan didn’t get that memo with the GQ Patrol. My ’88 wagon and its carby TB42 was slung with points from the factory, and it has been the only major downfall of this rig. If I had a dollar for the amount of times I’ve jumped on the UHF mid-track to ask for a ‘spark break’ because the points had stalled out on me, I’d be able to afford a new set of points.

7

Luckily, an electronic ignition conversion is pretty easy for these petrol Patrols. Pertronix makes a universal kit that fits the Patrol distributor with some minor modifications, which I sourced from Patrolapart for $295. There isn’t much in the kit, just the electronic ignitor, a few ring terminals and that’s about it.

Nissan put the TB42 dizzy in a pretty good spot, and there’s plenty of instructional videos online showing the fitment process. In short, you’ll need to remove the cap, rotor button, dust cover and the points. If you have a 1762 kit like mine, you’ll need to grind down the shaft of the distributor a few millimetres to fit the magnetic excitor for the Pertronix. That can be done with a basic die grinder. Re-use the rubber grommet for the wiring in the side of the dizzy, and then reassemble.

7

Wiring is easy, but for the TB42 you will need to extend it slightly. Connect the black negative wire from the Pertronix to the negative on the coil, and the red positive to the positive (white) wire on the ballast resistor, and that’s it. Easy peasy!

Hit the key, and you should have life. I noticed the difference straight away, with no more rough running, and the tacho had stopped jumping around (a common sign of an ignition fault). I took it for a quick drive around the corner to my mate’s house, and the engine ran super smooth compared to how it ran with the points. For the first time ever I could take off from an intersection with the air-con on (yes, it actually works in my ol’ GQ) without stalling and making a melon of myself.

Once I got to my mate’s, we checked the timing and found it was sitting at 20 degrees before top dead centre (TDC). Nissan recommends it to be more around 10 degrees before TDC, so we set it there and she was purring.

For the sake of around $300 and a few hours work, it’s a no brainer for anyone still running points in an old petrol rig. Now, to hit the tracks!

Pricing: $295