converting from 24v-12v

As I cannot get a 24v condenser to get my snow trac running correctly I am looking into changing the 24v coil and distributor for 12v units and then wiring in a voltage drop unit on the wire that feeds the coil, I am just wondering if anyone knows what distributor I need that will fit, I see alot of the bosch type 009's advertised. Is this the correct one to order? Thanks.

If you get a Bosch 009, look for a vintage German made one. The Asian copies are junk. A better distributor would be a vintage cast iron 010 or 019. I run a 40 year old 010 on my No.0922 Trac-Master. I get my distributors rebuilt and parts from Glenn Ring here: LINK

If your carb (Solex 30PICT-3, 34PICT etc.) has a vacuume port on it a SVDA distributor would be a good choice. See here for a discussion: LINK

I cant go for the vacuum type as my carb does not have the port, so are all the distributors for the beetle engine the same? I wasnt sure if the shafts that push into the engines were different lengths or diameters?

the distributors are all the same also take a look at your cat dealer they make a 12 volt regulated power supply you can use to step down your voltage they are used to power 12 vold gear in cat equpment like radios you might want to change out your carb to a model that will use a vaccuum advance with that systen you will get much better low rpm throttle responce.carbs are only about 130 dollars at california j bugs brand new and mine works great

John, make your own voltage divider and don't fuss with expensive power supplies. You just need a couple of resistors picked up from an electronics store. Consider the following formula for a resistive divider:

Vout = (R2/(R1 + R2)) x Vin

Where R1 and R2 are resistors in series, Vout is output voltage (12v) and Vin is input voltage (24v).

You can see that you'll get 12v output if you tap between two 10 ohm resistors in series like shown in the attached diagram. In your case, Vin is supplied by the wire going to the coil. Splice the resistors into this line with Vout now going to the coil. You'll have to scale the resistors to the wattage of your 24v input current, otherwise they may overheat. I can't recall what it is on the 24v system but you can measure with an ammeter. The rest of your system exclusive of the ignition circuit will remain 24V.

You'll want a protective housing/heat shield for the resistors. I used a soup can cut down to ~the size of a hockey puck, drilled several vent holes and mounted it in the air intake horn so it would be cooled by the fresh air stream. It worked great and I never had a problem. Resistors are so cheap that you can afford to by a bunch of extras to pack with you in case you need them. If a fancy power supply fails out in the bush, well I'm not sure what you'll do then!

Cheers.