Hi, I have my Pontiac 287 in the frame set up for a bench start. I've drawn a diagram below to show my set up. I'm not concerned about hooking up oil pressure. All plugs and wires are new and the firing order is correct. I'm running a Mallory coil (#29216) which has .700 ohms primary resistance and 8.90k ohms secondary resistance. My Pertronix ignition module has burnt out, so no more spark. Is my coil incorrect or is my bench start set up incorrect?
@Tim Could that be why the ignition module burnt out. Too much power to the module from coil without a resistor? Does the rest of the set up look good?
Yep, no resistor. Too much juice. HEI is the only factory ignition I can remember that uses a full 12 volts... ...
Your Mallory coil is a no no. Per instruction for GM conversion use 1.5 ohm coil and 1.5 ohm ballast resistor.
Yeah petronix is real picky about coils. also the “Internally regulated” Mallory coils still need a ballast resistor etc
@Tim @Johnny Gee @lostone @325w Thank you very much for the advice. Consensus is that my coil didn't have enough resistance and fried my ignition module. Really appreciated guys.
Huh, I have the exact same setup that I've had in my Pontiac 287. That is now in my Pontiac, 347 for 15 years In my hot rod. I use their 1.5 ohm coil straight to the distributor With no ballast resistor.
@wheeltramp brian The coil I have now is not a 1.5ohm coil. It's primary resistance is under 1 ohm (In fact, it's .007ohm according to the Mallory site). So it would make sense it burned it out.
Bench start diagram looks fine, if you can use a spring return to centre toggle switch on the start solenoid circuit, it makes it a little easier when it fires up (you may get excited and leave the solenoid "On" when she lights up!)
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