Gentlemen, Thanks for a fascinating thread. Ilove how you Aussies can call a spade- a spade without chucking your toys out the pram and storming off...pretty sure this would have died a death if posted in Engineers and Tech, (where it probably belongs)
Right, I'm NOT an aircraft mechanic. I eventually had my own village repair garage, had a Crypton engine-tuner with a 'scope and
knew how to read the trace
I grew up with side-valves, copper plug-wires, 6v electrical systems.
Plugs were simply an insulator with an electrode wire down the middle, held into a steel body......you could clean and regap indefinitely, until the ground-electrode was no longer over the end of the centre-one, but pointing at the side.....or the centre was burned away and recessed unto the insulator.
OK it wasn't efficient, but neither was the carb, camshaft, porting etc.
This wasn't good for Champion, the brand-leader, who exhorted you to clean and regap every 3,ooo miles, replace every 6,000
They sold a machine to sandblast, pressurise and fire the plug, ,with an observation- window and a chart to compare plug condition.......
Plugs were 4 for a pound (five bob each) and the marketwas saturated andstatic ,by the early 60's.
The advent of cheap transistor radios caused a huge growth in sales, Also it caused a lot of concern with the "crackle" of interference which was not addressed by add-on supressors- plug-caps with a resistor, and an in-line one in the King-lead.
The plug-makers quickly latched onto this! build -in a supressor-resistor, the insulator will bake it and in 12K miles it'll be fxxed! punters will HAVE to buy replacements....on top of that, we can up the price, 'cos it's now a highly-technical Resistor- plug....A marketing-man's dream!
Add in supressor cables for HT and you've another money-spinner. rubber insulation had already given way to PVC on HT leads and so a lot of damp-starting problems vanished.
I consistently had more problems with Champion ,than other brands
Afriend, an ex-transport driver, claimed to have seen skips full of rejects out back of their (now gone) (wonder why
) Liverpool factory.
I can confirm Ohm meter readings well outside spec. I can confirm the service-life of Bosch and NGK and Nippon -Denso (now just Denso) and resistor stability were far superior to the Champion product, which I, and thousands of others, stopped using. I can also confirm the scope-trace told the story...Champion failed sooner!
The bean-counters and marketing-men are probably to blame, but I find it indefensible to sell such a mission-critical component where the emporical evidence points to an in-built service-life limitation.
Recently talked on the net to a european Aviator....after fitting a new high-efficiency starter, the engine would not start or run .....he methodically fault-traced (Electronics engineer) and replaced the "almost new" Champions...having found the huge variation in resistance as reported by others...initially, just the "dead" ones were replaced, to confirm they were, indeed, the problem. engine started fine, but an excessive mag-drop prompted changing the others.....like fitting a new engine.! Of course, this problem is unique to him, they have never come across it before! thick, patronising c
s Don't they realise the internet will expose their bull in a flash?
@Progressive are you on a Champion retainer? seems like you , along with Yr right,are sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting "la la la" until the detractors run away.......Well, lads, the evidence is overwhelming When Champion have gone the way of Lodge and other fine brands killed by fools and asset strippers, we'll have no joy in saying "TOLD YOU SO"