First off id like to say that ive used this Petronix unit for the past 5 months with absolutely no problems until a couple days ago. Ive been having starting problems when i first get in my car for the day, when its warmed up its starts no problems. I was going down the road and all of a sudden my car was missing here and there, so i replaced the coil with a accel super stock coil. Hopped in started right up no problems. The next day i go to get into my car and it took about 2 mins of turning it over just to get it fired up. I pulled the coil wire, turned it over and sure enough I still have low spark. Ive checked everything (fully charged battery, alternator is charging, checked the wiring) with no luck of discovering the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sounds like the petronix pick up coil might not be sending a strong enough signal to the coil? Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Pertronics says to use a 1.5 ohm coil I believe, and have heard that the wrong one will mess up the ignitor unit
I just installed a Pertronix unit in one of my cars a few days ago. They recommended a 3 ohm coil... maybe it is application specific?? Mine was #1741 for an early '60's Hitachi distributor.
PM Hotroddon. I don't know if he makes em, vends them or just loves them. Given my druthers, I would run points and condensor or an 4 pin ignition module fired duraspark (google it) depending on the application. From what I hear, Pertronix is very particular about what parts you use on them and I wouldn't deviate one bit from what they recommend or you are just asking for trouble. Points aren't that hard to use, seriously. If you are running anything much hotter than stock, then just upgrade to an aftermarket setup anyway.
Run a jumper wire from the battery to the positive side of the coil and try it. Might be a bad switch
All I know about Pertronix is that people love to put them in old Brit cars. Whenever a car came into the garage not running right or with a no start problem one of the first things Neil would have me do was to swap it back to points. He'd seen so many mystery problems and failures on those little gizmos that he had no patience for them anymore.
I just put petronix in my 61 cadillac.. I hope I don't have any issues with it. I've heard nothing but good things about them though..
yeah yours is 1.5 and Accel super stock is 1.2 ohm. I was told by Pertronix that 1.2 was at the bottom of the scale but that it would be fine. I've run the Accel now for 4 years with no more trouble so I doubt it's coil related. You might want to pull the dizzy to make sure the pickup ring is within range of adjustment..
the ignitor 1 has a problem if you run an electric choke or anything else from the + side of the coil,also has problems with leaving the key "ON" without running the engine, those problems were solved with the Ignitor ll and a Flamethrower Coil is best with their units,make sure there is nothing else taking power from the positive side of the coil as it can backfeed and damage the Ignitor unit in the distributor
HotRodDon is at the Annual Hotrod & Restoration Show @ Indy, this weekend, working the booth for Partronix, Doug's Headers, and Patriot exhaust. I'm running a Flame-Thrower Dizzy and Flame-Thrower II 0.6 ohm Coil rated at a powerful 45,000 volts, on a 302 sbf. Excellent spark.
I don't have electric choke. I did run a stock coil with the unit until I changed the coil. Maybe the stock coil burned out the unit????? I ordered another petronix unit. Ill give it a try and let you know.
Just replaced it and its still kind of a ***** starting. I must me losing spark somewhere but I've checked everything wtf
Carb Tight ? might be ****ing air at the base when cold and expands when warmed up,because of the expansion between hot and cold often loosens the 4 nuts ,just a thought.
Run 12 volts from battery to coil positive and try to start as mentioned earlier,then find out were voltage drop is.
I think a 12 Volt system uses a 3 ohm coil and the 6Volt system uses a 1.5 ohm coil. Information from First Street Ignitions Web-Site, www.fsignitions.com.
Uhm, your coil resistance isn't going to affect voltage very much. http://www.pertronix.com/support/tips/default.aspx Other than that, wait till Don can reply to a PM or go directly to Pertronix for troubleshooting ***istance. I'm serious about them not working right all of a sudden unless you put them in EXACTLY like Pertronix tells you to.
Check that the coil has 1.5 ohns, thru the coil, between the "batt" terminal and the high tension contact and same on the"ign". side . Also must have 10-11K ohms between" batt" and "ign" terminals of the coil. Ignitor 1 must have 12V (no ballast resistor)
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