This might sound odd, hook your timing light up to the coil wire so when you pull the triger the light shoud look like a strobe . Shine the timing light down the throat of the carb and look for fuel droplets . you said it had a slight rpm change when idling .It could have a carb slightly driping . Also if the light shows a broken strobe pattern that would point to ignition breaking up . just a thought Brian
hi bruce, this is strictly a mechanical advance dist. no va***e at all. it might be starting to advance but i dont think its right. too rough of an idle in my opinion. hey brian, nothing sounds odd at this point. anything is worth a try and ill try this tonight. thanks.
scroll down on this site and click on the ****on that says scenario 15 http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm or any other scenarios for that matter. invaluable site.
You said your engine missfires (stumbles). When it does this, it changes your engine rpm. This changes your amount of mechanical advance. This changes your timing. Until you cure the missfire, you're chasing the wind.
i run a rather large cam in my motor, i find my timing mark jumps around but i have always ***umed it was due to the cam loaidn up at idle and was producing uneven fuel charges at idle.
How many volts are at the coil? How about when the coil is "under load"? Is there a ballast resister inline before the distributor with the Petronix?
Some good answers , i just got back from the Vegas SEMA show in Vegas . Heres what i suggest we do. Check the resistance of the ignition coil across the primary , cant be lower than 1.25-1.50 ohms . If its a low resistance coil (lower than 1 ohms) the current is killing the pertonixs module. Call me this week and i will ship you another complete machine tested distributor and you can return the other one for testing. ( i will then write up a post on the testing here on this thread) Be glad to do this at no charge in order to get er fixed. All of the above COULD be the issue but the coil concerns me the most , they have been a high failure part !
wow!!! thats some serious customer service. thank you. i have two of the pertronix 1.5 ohm internally resisted coils, tried em both. ive pulled the dizzy and its ready to go. pm sent. thanks again!
This is why I like your no nonsense approach! Many other vendors should look at this and model their customer service this way!
New machine tested ( and curved) distributor shipped today. Verified that advance first step is at 800 rpm and pretty steady all the way up. Max advance at 2800 rpm. Ran unit on machine all morning to verify pertronix operation as well. I will advise on results when other unit is recieved......
Ok replacement shipped ! Old unit came in ups today. Out of the box: End play check = good Rotor snap on advance. Hold gear and snap rotor, confirms advance and spring tension on weights. =good Pertronixs module clearance =good Machine test for advance action = good ( however here could be the problem as Brian was seeing on the car etc. Advance weights and springs allow advance to advance 2-3 degrees from 500 to 800 rpm. May be a little light in this area ( the unit i sent him back, i put a black spring on the low end just in case this is what he was seeing with the light?? Load test with load spark plug to confirm proper triggering of pertronixs unit at low speed, coil is drawing 3 amps and scope test and spark show good even spark at 25,000 volts...module control at 500 very good. My thinking is that the low speed ( lighter one) could have been a little on the loose side. Normally that wouldnt have made a difference in my normal testing as it did move a little off idle. I will in the future tighten up this low speed testing when building new units. We will see what the other unit i shipped to brian do upon installation.....
ok, first off. a big thanks to jim. not only did he go the extra mile for me, his customer service is second to none! the new distributor arrived yesterday and went in today. there is absolutley no jumping around of the timing mark. its perfect. my flathead is running great now. great product, great service, thanks!!!!!
Well it looks like some others could take a lesson from Bubba. Thanks to you for your service. I have 3 petronix, and they have worked flawless.
No problem at all, you had a problem ( caused by me) and it needed fixed. I learn something new every day ( thats a good thing). We have shipped almost 350 of these conversions and have had very few issues with them at all, however guys like you guys are the fix for any product. Each and every issue we have encountered has been from a customer that noticed a little something here or there. You can bet that from now on the low end return and spring tension will be on our check list. Glad that fixed it , thanks for being patient. Enjoy the flathead!!!
WOW! Very impressive...there needs to be more Bubba's in this world...he is definitely an Old School vender