Home › Forum › Ask A Member › 1970 85 hp V4 › Re: 1970 85 hp V4
The amplifier takes 12V from the battery and boosts (amplifies) it to about 300V, and the 300V is stored in a capacitor until time to fire.
The breaker points tell it when to fire. When a set of points opens, it is sensed by the amplifier and it discharges that stored 300V to the coil primary. That 300V discharge is the "CD" in "Capacitor Discharge Ignition".
Like any other coil, the primary winding induces a high voltage in the secondary, which is sent to the spark plug.
The advantage is the coil is operating on 300V pulses instead of the normal 6V on a conventional automotive system. The pulses are much faster and give a very high voltage and fast spark. This helps the plugs to fire even if gooped up with carbon and oil.
Unfortunately, they coupled it with a crappy distributor.
BTW, the system is perfectly capable of running backwards. That reverse cut-out ring we’ve mentioned prevents that.