The Ford Barn - View Single Post - Another E-Failure

Stromberg-97 · 04-03-2019, 09:44 AM

While we always welcome feedback from our customers, it won’t surprise many people to hear that Stromberg as a company disagrees with any suggestion that our e-FIRE distributors are ‘cheap crap’, especially as we know what they cost to produce and the care our guys take to build and test every single one that leaves the shop.

We now have nearly 1000 e-FIRE units working well for flathead owners all over the world, including our own hot rods with over two years road testing. We get positive feedback every day from happy customers and many flathead specialists - like H&H Flatheads to name just one – use e-FIRE units on pretty much everything they build. You can check our Youtube channel for Mike’s unsolicited opinion.

As with any new product, we did find things early on that we needed to improve. One was to add a clip inside to stop the wires being pulled too hard and rubbing on the drive shaft. We are also making constant improvements along the way, including a recent investment in new tooling to correct-size the oilite bushes to the drive shaft dimension to reduce movement to an absolute minimum. Once bolted on, our drive shafts have very little lateral movement. The ‘spring washer’ referred to above is actually a specially specified wave washer with two hardened thrust washers, designed to take up any tolerance and movement between the end of the cam and the distributor drive. The mechanical advance unit is separate of course, with added clearance built-in. Our electronic ignition is nowhere near as sensitive to movement as a points system and the module is pretty tolerant to movements in the air gap.

The stock Ford crab distributor is indeed an excellent product. And because of the vacuum brake, it benefits from just one shaft from top to bottom with bushes both ends. Modern distributors however, need different advance systems. I cannot think of one with a vacuum brake system. This means a separate mechanical advance unit on top of (separate to) the main drive, making a top bush impractical.

Stromberg warrants every product it sells for 12 months. We have never been notified of this particular failure, neither directly nor through the selling dealer (the correct channel). We take warranty issues very seriously and look forward to hearing how this particular unit became ‘toast’.

04-03-2019, 09:44 AM	#5
Stromberg-97 Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: England Posts: 1	Re: Another E-Failure While we always welcome feedback from our customers, it won’t surprise many people to hear that Stromberg as a company disagrees with any suggestion that our e-FIRE distributors are ‘cheap crap’, especially as we know what they cost to produce and the care our guys take to build and test every single one that leaves the shop. We now have nearly 1000 e-FIRE units working well for flathead owners all over the world, including our own hot rods with over two years road testing. We get positive feedback every day from happy customers and many flathead specialists - like H&H Flatheads to name just one – use e-FIRE units on pretty much everything they build. You can check our Youtube channel for Mike’s unsolicited opinion. As with any new product, we did find things early on that we needed to improve. One was to add a clip inside to stop the wires being pulled too hard and rubbing on the drive shaft. We are also making constant improvements along the way, including a recent investment in new tooling to correct-size the oilite bushes to the drive shaft dimension to reduce movement to an absolute minimum. Once bolted on, our drive shafts have very little lateral movement. The ‘spring washer’ referred to above is actually a specially specified wave washer with two hardened thrust washers, designed to take up any tolerance and movement between the end of the cam and the distributor drive. The mechanical advance unit is separate of course, with added clearance built-in. Our electronic ignition is nowhere near as sensitive to movement as a points system and the module is pretty tolerant to movements in the air gap. The stock Ford crab distributor is indeed an excellent product. And because of the vacuum brake, it benefits from just one shaft from top to bottom with bushes both ends. Modern distributors however, need different advance systems. I cannot think of one with a vacuum brake system. This means a separate mechanical advance unit on top of (separate to) the main drive, making a top bush impractical. Stromberg warrants every product it sells for 12 months. We have never been notified of this particular failure, neither directly nor through the selling dealer (the correct channel). We take warranty issues very seriously and look forward to hearing how this particular unit became ‘toast’.