Out of all the responses, only two folks, FNG's at that, mentioned the metallic powder/dust that the OP said was inside the distributor. I'm with them, in that it's more likely whatever is making that dust is the root problem, and NOT the Pertronix. That's what I'd be looking for.
Been running them for years with no problems. Call their customer service and explain what you have and what happened. They will be able to tell you if it is something you are doing wrong. I did blow my first one in the same way that you described. Talked to them and found out that the pertronix ignitor II was not compatible with the MSD masterbaster coil I was running. They sent me a replacement ignition unit and a pertronix coil and the hot rod has been running for years now. The other thing I did when I installed it was I pulled my distributor and installed the new ignition unit on my bench. This way I was able to properly install and shim everything so absolutly nothing was rubbing.
I don't know much about these because I run MSD in all my "non-original" cars. However it seems to me that I read about a lot of them blown up. Is it a quality issue or is it user/installer inexperience? Something doesn't sound right or reliable.
Mine has been firing my 351W since 1986, and still going. if it means anything, I'm using a factory coil. I like all the posts re; good customer service,.....That's becoming a lost art, it seems. 4TTRUK
My brother changed out several sets of the Petronix ignitions in his VW Beetle 10 years ago. He had a LOT of trouble with them and couldn't keep the engine running. He spent a ton of money on the engine and had one neat little hotrodded bug engine with dual carbs. He really did a good job letting everyone know what a crap company Petronix was, then he realized that with dual carbs and a much larger engine bore, he forgot to add a bigger fuel pump. Oops. His Petronix starting working great after that.
My experience with Petronix precedes hotroddon as I owned the ad agency that introduced the Ignitor manufactured by Per-Lux. I've been running the unit in boats, classics and hot rods since the late sixties. Originally designed for industrial applications like pumps, refer units, fork lifts and tow motors, the first automotive applications were in VW baja racers. It's been my experience that failures were generally caused by installation errors. In fact, even though I wrote the early installation instructions, I screwed up installing one on my Model A with an improper ground! I was in the speed equipment business for almost 50 years and I'm still amazed by the number of people that fail to fully understand installation instructions.
My car has had points for 51 years. The current set has been in there for well over 4 years, daily driven. Car has well over 500K on it.
i have 4 cars with pertronox and i had one bad experience on my 57 pontiac 1st gm verision were designed to sit under rotor and it was canged later on problem with this was clerence to modul as magnet were only mounted with 2 bolts and it was not a constant claerence this was changed later on and i have this on back on car no problem.
What are the installation issues that have caused premature failure? Incorrect coil? Incorrect hook-up? Gap clearence? I'd assume ( I know, don't) most on here are capable of reading instructions, and somewhat know their way around a distributor. Just curious, as I've been thinking getting a unit for an old Accel 37000.
Read again what he said. He did not talk to anybody about failures specifically, he does not have any figures to back anything up. What he said was "I've heard about 40% bad about them". It's not even a logical sentence. It has no facts and at best is either something he made up or hearsay from something someone else made up.
I had a pertronix fail, went back to points. I just like points I guess, I know what points are doing.
No offence, but much along the made up figure of .01%. I have no ideas what the TRUE failure rate is (rather than a "probably" made up reported failure rate) but I'd rather hear from a company a real number (even if its high), rather than one they pulled from thin air. That .01% isnt holding ground, unless MOST of the guys that have had failure happen to all use the Hamb.
If ALL 200,000 Hamb members had 1 Pertronix in their car, .01% would mean only 20 have failed in 40 years. Still sticking to that statistic? I even messed up, I figured it at 35 mill, not 3.5, thats only 350 failures EVER, not 3500 as I figured the first time.
I've had pertronix in my 68 Cougar for about ten years without any issues. I keep a set of points in the glove box just in case. Thats probably whats made the pertronix reliable. Knowing i have a back up. Kind of like i only have a flat tire whenever i dont have a spare.
I converted the flathead from a dual point to a Pertronix about 2 years ago, I always have my distributors dialed in on the distributor machine at the local speed shop so that the advance curve is set as desired plus all the other criteria is checked as well, I think it is money well spent. I also had them match a new correct coil to the unit. Once installed the motor purred for about 5 minutes and died and wouldn't even fart after that, so I start checking everything I had undone and redone electrically for the conversion with no bad results, after about 30 minutes or so it fired right up ran 5 minutes and died again.......Coil!.....it was getting hot and shorting itself internally, they happily replaced it and glad to say has run flawlessly since.
2 am on the side of the road, I can dig in my tool box & toss in the spare set of points & be on my way.
Have had zero issues on my truck(4yrs plus).This is the 2nd Petronix "ignitor to burn up on my car...
This in itself should tell you there is something wrong in your Car, not the Pertronix. Call there Tec line as I said before. The Wizzard
You do have to follow the directions carefully- right coil, proper input voltage i.e. does your vehicle have a resistor primary wire , straight 12V feed, separate resistor or? Hook it up the way they tell you, not what you think, and you shouldn't have any problems. Only one I've seen fail was hooked up wrong in the primary circuit
Almost 12 years, installed correctly (according to the directions) and 80,000+ miles and it still starts immediately and runs like a champ. I'd use one again in a heartbeat. I've got about a dozen others that will tell you the same thing. After running a high performance engine shop for 10 years I can tell you that even the experienced guys can fuck up once in a while. I'd be willing to bet that a vast majority of the failures talked about here and the result of human failure with the installation or incorrect support equipment. I'm almost willing to bet that a lot of them were installed without removing the distributer and doing the installation on a bench where you can see exactly what is going on. Frank
Probably a good percentage of failures with the Igniter, is from folks leaving the key on as well. I believe possibly the Igniter II, but definately the Igniter III has a failsafe built in to protect the unit from the ignition key being left on inadvertantly. Perhaps Don can clarify my statement for you all. As mentioned above, some folks just don't follow directions and insist they can mix and match INCOMPATABLE componants and expect the unit to last and perform as it was designed. I would highly recommend removing a old distributor and checking for excessive wear in the shaft and bushings before installing a Pertronix or any other brand conversion. I imagine the STANDARD or BLUE STREAK points are made in China now as well, but I still would look for this brand at your local NAPA for those running point type ignitions. I too like the idea of breaker points used with a MSD box, always have. TR
Yes the Ignitor II and III both have Microprocessors in them that protect from polarity installation problems and if you leave the key on without the car running they shut themselves off as a failsafe. And I just noticed that I had typed .01% failure when I meant to put LESS than .1% which comes from manufacturing and what they see in returned failures from the field and warranties (with a 30 month warranty that is extended past that many times).
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