Parked the old Binder the other day, went to move it later, no start, no sparky. I was about to swap out the Pertronix for points, and decided I'd better check the coil first. So, with the coil in my hand, a lead from coil + to battery +, a spark plug attached and laying on battery -, I should be able to momentarily touch the coil - to battery - and get a spark at the plug, correct?
Naw, you need and expanding and collapsing field to transform voltage. What you did was akin to turning the key on then off. Similar but not the same. DC voltage(as it is) can’t be transformed, it needs to mimic AC voltage, hence the condenser and points. There are a few ohms test you can do to get an idea if the coiled has opened up, etc.
I have run hipo flatheads for years. Weak spark from a stock type unit was always a problem. Back in the seventies I invested in a rt angle drive that ran a point type dizzy from a Chevrole from a brilliant machinist out of Colorado(FRICK). I even sent the unit off to have a special advance curve for a performance flathead—-limiting total advance to 25 degrees. Unit worked well, then I installed a Petronix that lasted about 1 yr and then died. I went back to the points(window type that u set with Allen wrench and dwell meter) 2 years later, I bought another Petronix and matching coil and it lasted 18 months. I know people are going to tell u they have 5 years or 8 years or whatever on their Petronix, but I have had 2 that went “***sup” over a relatively short useage timetable.!!! No more Petronix for me and I sold the dizzy to another HAMB er.
When I was student teaching, my instructor was asked to make a sparking device that would be used to demonstrate the volatility of small amounts of different liquids. We thought of using a flasher in conjunction with a coil Then he said, what about just connecting 120 volts AC across the coil. We talked to the guy in the group most experienced with electronics and he said that the problem would be the current draw of the coil. However, he believed that the 60 cycle change of current direction would produce enough inductive reactance to limit current flow. So we connected an old GM 12 volt coil to 120 volts AC. That thing sparked like mad. With no wire in the secondary output it would send sparks down the side of the tower. Our colleague was incorrect about current being limited. After a few minutes of playing around with it another instructor walked by and said, "Boys you better disconnect that thing, she's about to blow". He was right. What we didn't notice was the bottom of the oil filled coil starting to bulge. About the time we disconnected it oil started to squirt out of the secondary tower. We ended up with a 12 volt power supply, a turn signal flasher and a relay to activate the coil.
If you touch the + lead to the coil a few times quickly, you should see a spark. Your hands just became the points.
Gus Wilson used to test coils with them on the car by bumping the engine over until the points were closed. He then used his finger nail to quickly snap the points open and closed. It should produce a spark at the coil secondary lead. (Gus Wilson - The Model Garage a monthly story in Popular Science magazine)
We use to run Pertronix in forklifts years ago, we changed them out once a year with a tune up............................I always wonder why bother the points lasted a year before we went to Pertronix
Well I put the points back in. I did try the coil test I mentioned and it does give a spark at the plug. I knew I had done it before. Then when I put the coil back in I did the finger snap on the points test (with a plug laying on the engine) and also got spark. Put it all back together, started right up....and ran like ****. Popped the cap off again, the point gap that I thought was close was about .030. Reset it to .016, running great. I don't know what could have happened to the Pertronix. An Igniter 2 too. I pulled it out of the garage, parked it out front, came back later that day (hadn't left the key on) and not even a pop. I have Pertronix in my flathead Ford crab distributor, and my old tractor that sits outside, both have been great.
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