Electronic ignition upgrade

After some drama with an online vendor, i decided to stop trying to chase the dream of finding the distributor that was made of unicorn tears that was designed specifically for our bug and upgrade to a more readily available and modern solution. I was able to buy a new coil and full distributor with electronic ignition for about $50 bucks less (and drama free) than the restored original that i am still unsure even existed. Once I got used to the idea that i could not effectively get my hands on the exact right distributor, I did a little exploring and found a reputable vendor for the updated distributor. I ordered a new coil to go with it as the new dizzy states in bold print that I must have a 3ohm coil. Of course, I ordered the wrong one. It was an easy exchange and I finally got the right one shipped in. We got a nice day on Friday and decided to start to tackle the distributor project. I love when I can get both kids involved. After looking things over, we decided to replace the 12mm vacuum line for the auto stick as well. This was especially soothing as this hose was steel reinforced and the support coil is rusting so badly that there are razor sharp barbs slicing and dicing my hands any time we try to adjust the carburetor. We found that it would be much easier to replace this hose while we had the distributor and coil out of the way. This has been another engineering adventure as this type of cable is very expensive and is still substituted for a brake booster cable. In our case, we didn’t like the braided cloth outer jacket on the hose, so I looked for something that we could use that wouldn’t rot and produce so much trash in the engine bay. Who knows, it may not last the 40 years that the original has, but, for a cleaner interface, I am willing to take the chance. I found a source for some heavy duty fuel line and another source for a support spring to put inside the hose. This should satisfy the structure requirements of the hose. I had each kid take a turn removing a bolt from the coil and we took some notes on how the old wires were connected. We looked over the old coil, and it appears to be the original. We replaced it with the new one to assure compatibility with the new distributor and now have a functioning spare. Next, we took out the old distributor. It was much easier than I anticipated. Again, we noted how the old one was connected so we could go back if needed. This is the first time that we felt there was enough room to work in the engine bay. From here, we switched gears to focus on the dreaded vacuum hose of pain. We noticed that the clamps on each end were screw clams, but they faced the wrong directions making them impossible to loosen. Now that we had all the extra room, we could move those around to be more accessible. I pulled out the ends so the kids would not have to get sliced up. The hose pretty much fell apart in my hands. We held the pieces together and measured what we needed for the new one and cut to length. We did the same with the support spring. Putting the new hose on was far easier and less painful than removing the old one. Now we can get back to the distributor. I am pretty proud of my kids in how they are learning and staying involved as best they can. I am happy that we have something fun that we can enjoy together. We looked over the markings and realized that there is only one way that we can install it. We had to install the electrical ends on the wires and put some oil on the O-ring per the instructions. With a few tries, the new dizzy dropped right into place. We assured that all the bolts and wires were in the right spots and then returned to the coil. The new coil came with spade tips for each of the terminals that would only accommodate 2 wires. The old one already had 3 wires and a 3 wire connector, so we just reused that. Adding the dizzy required a 4th connection. so we took the new one, modified it slightly and added it to make the 4 we needed. For some reason, the new coil was slightly bigger around than the old. so we had to find a longer bolt for the clamp. I dug through my stuff and found a toggle bolt. I use the heck out of these as they are usually long enough to do just about anything and I had a bunch on hand due to past projects. With that solved, we tried to mount the new coil back where it came from, but, the toggle bolt was too long and prevented the wrench from getting in there. Rotary tool to the rescue. The old bolt was too short and the new one was too long. So we simply cut the new one to size and all went well. We connected all the wires up and double checked our work to see if there were spare parts, or anything else in the way that we needed to attend to. All was well, so we moved the tools and boxes out of the way of the exhaust pipe and tried to start Bee. I admit I was a bit paranoid that something was going to go wrong and that we missed something. By the time, I was processing this, my daughter had the big started and were satisfied on a job well done. Since it was now dinner time, we decided to stop for now and revisit at a later time.