I have a 1982 240 with a B21A (carbureted) engine that I am considering converting to electronic ignition to avoid the hassles of points. Any success stories of what goes well with a 240? I am looking for reliability and affordability.
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Michel Garcia - 1986 240 DL Manual Sedan - Ottawa, Canada

Two cents.....I wish I still had my '68 142S with points and SUs. With this set up no worry about a running vehicle after the electronic burst bomb. Also, with dwell meter, timing light and a little maintenence on the carbs once a year, the car goes on and on and on........

wonder if I can take all this damn electronic/ignition crappolla/computor/AMM/hot air plumbing/government sh_ _ tcanned air pollution hoax-olla off my '88?

You could covert your 240 to carb.

In Europe they had carbs till '88 with the B230 block. So it's a matter of getting the intake manifold, carb, mechanical fuel pump (or maybe the in-tank will suffice), distributor(?).
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

Yes, the distributor rotor is different between an 82 B21A and B21F. I found that out the hard way after I ordered a few tune up parts from FCP Groton in the U.S. The car didn't start and I had to revert to the old rotor.
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Michel Garcia - 1986 240 B230F & 1982 240 B21A - Ottawa, Canada

I'm pretty sure rotors are interchangeable. You may have received a defective? Check for electrical continuity within.

Distributors, though may be different. If ignition is computer controlled, a vacuum attachment to advance or retard timing may not be needed.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

Hmmm, I get a resistance of ~4.95 kOhm between the central rotor post and outer rotor face. I don't know if that's acceptable.

One thing I know for sure is that it's a different Bosch part number (983 4.7) on the non-working rotor and it is slightly different on the working one currently on the car. Also, the outer rotor face has a different shape.
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Michel Garcia - 1986 240 B230F & 1982 240 B21A - Ottawa, Canada

Michel,

I live across the river from you and probably have the parts that you need:

rochebleue(aT)hotmail(.)com

Merci.

I have distributors and control units for the Bosch electronic ignition found on U.S. B21F motors. They are easy to wire up. See the contact info in my profile. -- Dave

I thought they all started having electronic ignition in 1975......
If yours doesn't you should get an electronic ignition from an equivalent 240.

No George, not all of them did (since 1975). Over here, FI and elec ign became std somewhree in the mid 80s on the 240s.

Since this is a B21 engine, it should be able to take the electronic ign from any later 240's, yes?
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...and the bricks keep on rolling

Yes, I was told after I got the Pertronix, that I could have used the ignition setup from a FI B21. It didn't occur to me because the ICU was a complicated looking remote box whereas the Pertronix (or Hot-Spark) conversions dropped into the distributor to replace the points. Am keeping an eye out for the old B21 setup at the PnP, but haven't seen any old B21 240s lately.

'84 was last year for Canadian carbed 240s.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

I have a 1980 with B21A engine. I installed the Pertronix many years ago. Very simple and it works fine. Smartest thing I ever did was get rid of those points! I'm on my second Pertronix. The first one lasted 15K miles.

I misspoke on my previous reply to my experience regarding the petronix solid state ignition. Upon perusing my records, I found that my first petronix lasted nearly 11 years, and 100k miles, not 15k as I originally stated. Sorry. I would strongly recommend the Petronix ignition. It sure beats changing points a couple of times a year.

Hold onto that carbed engine. If the body goes, you can transfer the head or whole engine over to a newer 240 and keep the reliability and affordability of carbs.

Pertronix and Hot-Spark seem to work well (better than points). Check their websites for info. And then maybe Ebay. You've got to convince them to ship USPS rather than UPS or Fedex to avoid border/import charges. They're small packages that can be dropped in the mail.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

Thanks Trevor,

I checked out the websites and they have a lot of information. I am new to the carbureted engine world as I got the car this June and all I really ever did with carbureters before was clean out the bowl of a Tecumseh lawnmower. I just got the Weber Carburetor Manual from Chapters which includes a lot of maintenance detail. I also downloaded the Volvo service manual for carbureted fuel system on http://www.scribd.com/.

I like the simplicity of the carbureted engine (very few wires in the engine bay), but my fuel economy is worse than my 86 with B230F. I have to learn how to tune/tame this beast. Do you know where to get rebuild kits for Zenith (hopefully same store as SU) here in Canada? I also want to get a spare carburetor. I also have to watch out when ordering parts online from the US since they usually have B21F parts for an 82.

I lucked out for the body of the car. It spent 20 years in BC and looks mint compared to my 86. I need to do a little light body work this summer and I'll rustproof it in the fall. I'll also clean out the rocker panels via those plastic plugs. I never knew those existed before I took out the carpet on my 86 to put in new floor after the old ones rusted through.
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Michel Garcia - 1986 240 B230F & 1982 240 B21A - Ottawa, Canada

Try to get yourself an SU carb. They're easy to adjust. (I have Zeniths but don't use them.)
Burlen Fuels in the UK own SU.
Rhys Kent a brickboard member has http://www.sucarburetors.com/index.html

I have an old tach/dwell meter that I use to adjust fuel mix. (I don't use the dwell part since I don't use points anymore.)

I'm getting 10 to 11 km per liter. I've found that disabling the idle bypass improved my mileage. The IB was introduced to prevent run-on after shut-off. But if you run your engine on the lean side, run-on shouldn't be a problem.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.