1970 to 1973 3.5 4.5 D-Jetronic V8 Points to Electronic Ignition Conversion

Kent worked on this conversion for over 5 years trying ot find the right components to correctly and reliably fit the V8 distributor. Success finally came when he decided to make a custom shutter for the optical trigger. He is so impressed with how it is performing on this 1972 300SEL 4.5, that he can now offer it for sale to other enthusiasts. Watch the video below as he explains the advantages. If you do any work on your cars, this is something you can install yourself, especially with Kent's step-by-step installation video instructions included.

PLEASE REVIEW CAREFULLY:  Two types of rotors were used on these early D-Jetronic V8 engines. Basically, you have one that is big and angled, and you have one that is smaller. This kit WILL ONLY WORK with the smaller rotor. The larger rotor will not properly fit on the distributor with the new shutter. If you have a larger rotor, you can replace it with a smaller one without any problem since you are converting to electronic ignition. In fact, the smaller one may be more reliable. To purchase separately, please see the related products below;

The larger rotor, like you see below, will NOT work.

This is the one you need as shown below:

This advanced kit will give you everything you need ( except a timing light ) for a successful installation. He has decided to sell the kit with the coil upgrade and the correct new ballast resistor included. This does add cost to the conversion, but in the past 10-plus years we have been selling the conversion for the 4 and 6-cylinder engines, we found that any problems reported to us could be traced back to a bad or incorrect ballast resistor or coil. If the incoming voltage is not correct or there is too much resistance in the coil, the electronic module can overheat and even fail. 

The kit includes the following:

• Fast XR-700 conversion kit
• Custom-made V8 distributor shutter
• New performance coil
• Correct Ohm balast resistor
• Component mounting hardware
• Extra wire and terminals to complete wiring
• Black wiring loom to cover new wiring
• Factory written instruction manual
• Kent's 30-minute video instructions

Be sure to read the written instructions that pertain to Mercedes and follow their wiring diagram:

PLEASE NOTE:  How to perform final ignition timing with a light is not included in Kent's video instructions. This is a standard tune-up procedure, and information on this is readily available online or from various service manuals. 

If you are curious if this conversion will work on your 3.5 or 4.5, all you need to do is remove your distributor cap and rotor, and this is what you should see.

Here is what the completed conversion looks like in the 300SEL 4.5