PartsKlassik CDI boxes and coils

[Terminator]

Thought I would share my experiences with USA firm Partsklassik.

Some years back I purchased 6 CDI boxes and 2 coils from Partsklassik as I was completing the ST which required 2 coils and 2 CDI boxes

Of the 6 CDI boxes 5 failed ( they repaired the first one and blamed anything but their work, soldering inside the box had failed) and stopped responding to subsequent emails and calls for help with the other 4.

As recent as the last 2 weeks a fully rebuilt 2.4E engine that I am running in was exhibiting electrical gremlins frustrating both me and the builder.

We were discussing yesterday the possible causes and one item mentioned was the coil. I had forgotten that this engine had one of the 2 Partsklassik coils installed (I removed both from the ST when I had CDI box trouble).

Sure enough swapped the coil out for a 50 year old one and hey presto I have a perfect engine, gremlins are gone!!!

Moral of the story.

Buyer beware of Partklassik products in my experience.

[reedminor]

Gee - a real case of caveat emptor.

I was lucky I guess with the ones on my 911L - I had no issues.

I have a Classic Retrofit CDI on the Carrera 3.0 and that has also been good, but I always carry an old spare coil on long journeys.

Justin

[Terminator]

Gee - a real case of caveat emptor.

I was lucky I guess with the ones on my 911L - I had no issues.

I have a Classic Retrofit CDI on the Carrera 3.0 and that has also been good, but I always carry an old spare coil on long journeys.

Justin

Yes fitting one of those to the E Justin can't use the fancy mapping as still have points but the benefits are still supposed to be noticable.

We will see.

Original becomes the spare then.

[D Miller]

Interesting to see you post this Clyde. I have also had some negative experience with Partsklassik, having a couple of years ago purchased their CDI and coil and had them rebuild my original Bosch 0 231 159 007 distributor.

I had no issues with their CDI, which functioned correctly until I removed and replaced it with a Classic Retrofit CDI. I did this because of the promise of increased reliability and performance based on Classic Retrofits marketing material. The Partsklassik CDI is now my spare.

The coil was a different story, at some point suffering damage to the orange plastic cone section, and as I wasn't sure whether this damage was a manufacturing fault, shipping damage or caused by me during install, I repaired it with epoxy resin and reinstalled it and it worked fine until it failed completely a couple of months ago - the spark started jumping through a new crack in the plastic straight to earth (This failure was audible from inside the car and the spark clearly visible when I opened the engine lid to see what was going on, but the car still ran, just badly).

I have read elsewhere that the plastic used in these coils is brittle and you need to be very careful with it....

I am now using a Classic Retrofit coil, which I was lucky enough to buy before they stopped selling them, and it has been functioning correctly since install. I have also just purchased another Partsklassik coil as a spare (which I intend to inspect very carefully for signs of damage / manufacturing faults when it arrives). Unfortunately, there are not many options for new replacement coils for the CDI system and all of the options come with varying degrees of negative commentary and reliability risk.

Regarding the distributor, it came back from Partsklassik looking shiny and new and I ran it for a while, with points initially and then with a pertronix ignitor. At first I had a lot of trouble getting the engine to idle smoothly, this improved markedly with the pertronix although it was still not perfect even after lots of trouble shooting - a full run through CMA, brand new injectors, plugs, etc etc. I suspect this may be due to some excess radial play in the top shaft, and when I send my original distributor away for another rebuild one day there are other vendors I will consider over Partsklassik.

I have now removed the original distributor and replaced it with a 123+Ignition distributor which I programmed with the original 1969 911s advance curve and the engine idles perfectly and pulls smoothly to redline.

So I am running a Classic Retrofit CDI with a 123+Ignition distributor, which I think might be a bit odd ball but I really like and so does the car! It seems most people run one or the other but not both together.

BTW you can program an advance curve into the Classic Retrofit CDI if you are running points but it is a bit complicated and essentially 'overlays' the mechanical advance in the distributor. They do sell a locking collet for the later distributors to remove the mechanical advance completely from the distributor and then everything is done in the CDI, but I don't think this is an option for the early cars.

Hopefully this information is helpful to others who are facing similar issues.

Cheers,

[Terminator]

Interesting to see you post this Clyde. I have also had some negative experience with Partsklassik, having a couple of years ago purchased their CDI and coil and had them rebuild my original Bosch 0 231 159 007 distributor.

I had no issues with their CDI, which functioned correctly until I removed and replaced it with a Classic Retrofit CDI. I did this because of the promise of increased reliability and performance based on Classic Retrofits marketing material. The Partsklassik CDI is now my spare.

The coil was a different story, at some point suffering damage to the orange plastic cone section, and as I wasn't sure whether this damage was a manufacturing fault, shipping damage or caused by me during install, I repaired it with epoxy resin and reinstalled it and it worked fine until it failed completely a couple of months ago - the spark started jumping through a new crack in the plastic straight to earth (This failure was audible from inside the car and the spark clearly visible when I opened the engine lid to see what was going on, but the car still ran, just badly).

I have read elsewhere that the plastic used in these coils is brittle and you need to be very careful with it....

I am now using a Classic Retrofit coil, which I was lucky enough to buy before they stopped selling them, and it has been functioning correctly since install. I have also just purchased another Partsklassik coil as a spare (which I intend to inspect very carefully for signs of damage / manufacturing faults when it arrives). Unfortunately, there are not many options for new replacement coils for the CDI system and all of the options come with varying degrees of negative commentary and reliability risk.

Regarding the distributor, it came back from Partsklassik looking shiny and new and I ran it for a while, with points initially and then with a pertronix ignitor. At first I had a lot of trouble getting the engine to idle smoothly, this improved markedly with the pertronix although it was still not perfect even after lots of trouble shooting - a full run through CMA, brand new injectors, plugs, etc etc. I suspect this may be due to some excess radial play in the top shaft, and when I send my original distributor away for another rebuild one day there are other vendors I will consider over Partsklassik.

I have now removed the original distributor and replaced it with a 123+Ignition distributor which I programmed with the original 1969 911s advance curve and the engine idles perfectly and pulls smoothly to redline.

So I am running a Classic Retrofit CDI with a 123+Ignition distributor, which I think might be a bit odd ball but I really like and so does the car! It seems most people run one or the other but not both together.

BTW you can program an advance curve into the Classic Retrofit CDI if you are running points but it is a bit complicated and essentially 'overlays' the mechanical advance in the distributor. They do sell a locking collet for the later distributors to remove the mechanical advance completely from the distributor and then everything is done in the CDI, but I don't think this is an option for the early cars.

Hopefully this information is helpful to others who are facing similar issues.

Cheers,

I knew it would not be just me