From: Doc Bryant (rbhonk1@cox.net)
Date: Sun Oct 12 2003 - 12:13:22 PDT
David (and group):
I spent 8 years working for Chris Jacobs. Some of his ideas are correct,
and some of the stuff he comes up with is just plain nuts.
The first couple of chapters in his Dr.'s Guide to Ignitions is not bad at
all as a way of explaining how ignition systems work. After that, its
mostly BS. The section on making a cheap electronic ignition is useful, but
that is about it.
I have to give the fellow credit where credit is due, he created the low
resistance low RF emissions plug wire industry. Now everyone and their
cousins makes a spark plug wire that does not cause RF interference, yet is
below 500 ohms resistance per foot. Some of the vendors (note I did not say
manufacturers) now offer plug wires that are below 50 ohms resistance per
foot. Another thing that Jacobs did was to encapsulate every ignition box
we made. That alone increased reliability over our competition (until they
figured it out too!)
The high output coils were nothing more than Ford designed C-4 coils stuffed
into fancy housings. We did make some coils to our own designs, but they
really were not much better than anything else you could get at the local
parts house.
Chris Jacobs sold Jacobs Electronics to Rostra Precision Controls about four
years ago. In November of 91, Rostra moved the factory from West Texas to
their east coast operations, taking only three of the 115 or so employees
with them. From what I have heard, now those three are gone, and Rostra
outsources everything. I heard a rumor that Rostra peddled the Jacobs stuff
to Mr. Gasket. I have not heard any confirmation of that. I do recall the
Mr. Gasket folks visiting us in 95 or 96, but they decided not to buy us
then.
It was a fun ride, kind of like going to the Carnival every day. I worked
with some great people there, and some I would consider using as target
holders for a "live fire" demonstration. And I worked with some great
customers too. I worked on quite a few exoticars and racing vehicles.
Especially those ones you see on the weekend that are supposed to be stock.
And not supposed to have a computer controlled ignition, or anything else
that smacks of cheating. Yea, right.
Now, here is the Mil Veh content....Am I going to use an electronic ignition
on my M37 restoration? Yes. But it will probably be a mish mash of
equipment, not of one vendor in toto. Will it appear OE? I could do that,
I guess.
Doc Bryant
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