Just put in a pertronix ignition and no spark. Power at coil but no switching on ground side. Anyone know what to check??? Clearances were set to what pertronix said they should be...
Check for voltage on the neg side of coil. run further downstream and check for voltage before the Pertronix unit, then out of the Pertronix before ground. If you have 12v, then check resistance of Pertronix unit to ground. Full open, there's your problem-either the unit is burnt or you've got an open in your ground.
Check for ground on the - side? Key on or cranking? I have no ground on - side of coil or pertronix unit cranking or key on. red pertronix lead/coil side is hot at all times (cranking or not) with key on,
No, always check resistance with power OFF. Try checking resistance with power on, and your multimeter will make a nice POP, and all the smoke will get out of it. Check for resistance across the Pertronix unit, one side on the coil side (power off) and the other on a common ground, such as the engine block or frame rail.
Tell ya what- I've got a dizzy set up for Pertronix but not on the motor-Lemme ohm it out and get back to you in a few minutes with a nominal ohm reading for the Pertronix unit, just to give you a baseline it what to look for in the way of resistance out of the unit.
OK- I'm showing about 75K ohms across the terminals regardless of Dizzy position, so you might want to check all the voltages on the + side of the coil, the - side of the coil, etc. Make sure you have 12 volts, put your black lead of your miltitester on a common ground, start as close to the fuse panel as you can-make sure you're getting 12V with power on. Then, check for 12V at every junction or component. You are looking for the component that "drops" the voltage, or makes it go away. If you still have no joy, check your ballast resistor, or check the part in the Pertronix manual about the ballast resistor, might need to ditch it.
Res accross the pertronix pickup (red and black wires) disconnected from the coil are around 500K. Red to ground or black to ground is around 5M ohms. I was checking for power with a test light. I was thinking if the + side of the coil has power when the key is on, the - side should open and close while cranking to collapse the field and make the spark. I know the coil is good 'cause I can get it to spark by intermittently grounding the - side with power on the + side of it. Thinking I should just put points back onm but the store closes soon.
If you're showing only 5 ohms on the red wire to ground, that's your problem-You've got a "short to ground", or your red wire has been nicked and shorted out to the dizzy or ground. Follow me here- If the Unit shows 500K by itself, and you're trying to measure resitance to ground THROUGH the unit, it should be 500K, Right? If you're getting only 5 Ohms resistance, then you're red wire is touching your chassis ground sometime before it goes throught the unit.
Pretty sure the unit is junk. Have 12V @ coil +. Found about 3 ohms breaker plate to ground and made a better ground strap for it. Put the dizzy back in and it will only throw a spark (although a much brighter one) is when you ground the coil - yourself, or when you shut the key off. No switching from the dizzy guts. With the pertronix pickup coil out of the dizzy, resistance shows an open. Points it is for now.
I went thru this on a Broderson 8 ton crane with a Continental 4 banger we have at work. With the Pertronix in, I pulled the #1 spark plug wire and checked for spark, got none. So I thought the unit was bad, right? Put it back together, and it worked fine. It was the wierdest thing. IDK if I changed the air gap or what. Good luck, hope yours ends up something simple too. Jay
Tried that too. I did it with .030 washers and without - both in spec but no difference. Even disassembled the dizzy and shimmed it to get rid of most of the up and down slop. Just had it runnung a minute ago with the points. Funny - I'm 31 and been working on cars since 13. This is the first car I've worked on with points (other than taking them out), a mechanical clutch linkage (hydraulic yes), and a real external shift linkage (cables I've done of course). Thank goodness it's 12V DC, and runs on fuel and spark (and math, as Don_wow would say), and I know carbs. Definitely been a learning experience so far. Everyday I learn something new working on cars, and I also (re)learn that I don't really know as much as I thought I did yesterday...
This may sound dumb, but did you change the magnetism in the black ring thingy? IDK what it's really called, maybe the pickup? Maybe dropped it or something. This sucks, because usually Pertronix are "idiot proof". I'm living proof of that. Jay
If you call their help line they usually can figure it out.I had a friend with a morris minor that had an older nissan motor in it with a petronix unit.I called them and found out you cant leave the key on as it will burn up the module,evidently he had.You can tell by looking at the white tag with the numbers on the module,if they are distorted and not real straight the module is burnt
pertronics is the bomb.i put one in an older 351w once and had the same no spark.tinkered with the air gap(it doesn,t take much)and away i went.i guess the manufacturer spec isn't allways the way to go in some applications.nickoli
X2 on using their coil. Running one for over 10 years with no problems. If you don't use their coil it may fail after a while.
Timing will not affect wether you have spark or not. If you don't have spark when spinning the engine it's not timing.
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