good question. But nope the electrode does not move at all. It will not push or pull at all. It is like its welded in there.

I did a little googling and couldn't find a cap either. It appears that the other caps #209 and #226 aren't interchangeable.

I have the 123 ignition. I like it so far. Totally customizable spark curves. The ability to kill the car ignition with a PIN code. Some nice things

I have read they don't like excessive heat, so I made a little heat shield to mount on my headers

I have run the ZX dizzy in the past. Runs fine but you need to keep a spare module on hand in case the ignitor dies.

I have been talking with a fellow Z buddy. He was a regular here and he went with the 123 ignition early on. I think I am going to go that way. I have long wanted the ability to custom tune the ignition curve without having to take apart the dizzy and mess with weights and springs. While that worked with the mallory, I still had some pinging at full throttle at times. It is completely crazy I cannot find a cap for a mallory now, but I suppose time stays still for no one. So this friday I am making the 123 order.

I use a zx dizzy, and I do not use the matchbox that came with it. I just wired my msd 6al directly to it and made a small cover to close the hole where the match box was mounted. car runs great no problems.

I also run at 34 degrees btdc at 2500rpms

I think I have found a concern with the 123 dizzy install. I have watched about a dozen videos. @Patcon please help me out with this. My new 123ignition tune + comes in this week.

Let me walk folks through this install process. And let you know my thoughts.

If the car runs, warm it up a bit. You want the car to be easy to start when you get the new 123 in.

When it is not too warm to touch, remove the spark plugs, this will make manually turning over the engine at the crank manageable.

Put the engine on top dead center using your timing marks on your balancer. If you do not trust this, you can verify by looking for the piston to be at the top AND pull the cap and off the old dizzy to verify you are pointed at #1. If your dizzy is already out, then pop off the valve cover and look for the intake and exhaust valve on number 1 to put pointed up (some people call this rabbit ears position)

Take pics of the rotor position

Take a pics of the wiring hook ups as they are currently (for a known good config)

Disconnect the old dizzy and pull it out.

Install the new 123ignition dizzy so the offset tab drops into the housing. (it will only go in one way).

The 123Ignition rotor is 90 degrees to the alignment tab on the oil pump shaft. (factory dizzy is parallel to the tab) - from what I have heard on 'the youtube'.

Regardless. The next steps are to take the slack out of the 123 rotor and rotate the dizzy housing until a green light comes on, then tighten it down. This is the NEW TDC firing position for cylinder 1 with 0 degrees of advance.

This is an issue in my eyes. With the distributor tight and the cap only going on one way, the rotor will most likely NOT be pointing at a plug terminal inside the cap. You will be advanced or retarded a certain number of degrees while the piston is at TDC. The spark should have already happened by now, so when you reallocate the wires you can make sure the number one plug is behind rotor rotation. But you will have no idea how much off you are unless you put it on a timing light (if it starts).

So how will I solve this 'mismatch'. This is my plan.

With the distributor installed and wired up, I plan to fire up the 123ignition bluetooth app. Set the total advance of the engine to 0 degrees on the centrical advance, and I will block off the vacuum advance tab entirely and set it to zero. This should allow me to put a timing light on it (assuming it starts) to see how off the distributor is off from true top dead center.

At this point I am not sure what I would do. I am not sure how the 123 works. Can I adjust for the offset in baseline timing on the app? Or should I just leave the baseline in the software at 0 degrees and turn the distributor until it reads zero so the dizzy position matches the software. Until the dizzy position and software agree, no sense in messing with the app.

Either way, a timing light is a must have tool on this install and I am shocked nobody is mentioning it. If they would have kept the rotor position the same as the factory position, this would have been a lot less an issue.

Patcon, I would love to pick your brain!

Zedyone.

Edited March 17Mar 17 by Zedyone_kenobi

dizzy arrives today. Wondering if I should just buy a new coil while I am at it. I have a 1.5 Ohm flamethrower now with the ballast in place. Maybe I go to a 3 Ohm coil and drop the ballast? Need to go back into the dizzy notes to see if the factory tach needs that ballast to work.

You need the 1.5 coil without the ballast is their recommendation. On the website it’s pretty straight forward. Number 1 position on the 123 is in the 5 position on their cap. Different I understand but that’s how they set it up. Bring it to top dead center drop it in and turn it clockwise until the led lights and your set.

Hate to be contrary but they actually recommend a 1.0 ohm coil for a six cylinder engine. Somewhere out there I think that they suggest that their newer models use current-limiting technology like the ZX and GM HEI ignition modules, which allow the usage of the lower resistance coils and removal of the ballast. Can't find it but I remember seeing it.

Lots of good stuff on this page -

https://123ignition.com/support/

I kind of miss the good old days of plain instructions on paper or electronic paper. But everything's going to the glitzy internet style. Here's their manual with color illustrations.

https://123ignition.com/support/tuneplus-app-manual/

I agree with Yarb. My car was inop when I did the install. I set TDC and installed the dizzy. Rotated until I got the green light. Then locked down. Programmed in an initial curve

Started right up. Verified actuall advance vesus the apps display with a timing light.

IIRC there are multiple spots where the green light will light up as you rotate it...so you might have more than one orientation option

3 minutes ago, Patcon said:

I agree with Yarb

On the 1.5 coil without ballast or just the setup? Or both?

I believe I used a 1.5 ohm coil with no ballast resistor