When you’re trying to learn about older cars, you might as well be signing up for the debate club. Every question, especially when it comes to breaker points, electronic, and multiple spark discharge ...

If you're a follower of the "How It Works" series, you've been learning the principles of what makes a car run. You've boned up on the four-stroke cycle, valvetrains, cooling, lubrication, and ...

The demands for better emissions and fuel economy in the mid 1970s necessitated leaner fuel mixtures. These leaner mixtures required greater voltage and more spark to ignite. This challenge led GM ...

Automotive ignitions systems have seen many transitions over the years. Historically, the designs have matured from a magneto to today’s coil-over-spark plug designs. The progression follows the ...

The ignition is easily the most misunderstood system in any car. Most enthusiasts treat ignitions like some sort of weird, black magic/voodoo curse best left alone until it fails. Either that or they ...

Ignition system technology has taken a number of twists and turns over the past fifty years. Matthew Beecham reports on some technical trends in the OE and aftermarket. “In the past, the sole purpose ...

The ignition control module is a crucial component of a vehicle's ignition system. It is a control unit responsible for regulating the ignition timing and generating sparks to ignite the fuel-air ...

The distributor has two jobs: to house a switch that tells the coil when to send a spark, and to send that spark to each individual cylinder in the correct order. The distributor shaft is spun by the ...