Pertronix Nightmare

Have been running Pertronix for nine years in my roadster. Runs like a swiss clock.
Working on a new coupe now with some running issues I have not solved yet. I need Ronnieroadster! It may be next!
 
ct1932ford said:
Have been running Pertronix for nine years in my roadster. Runs like a swiss clock.
Working on a new coupe now with some running issues I have not solved yet. I need Ronnieroadster! It may be next!
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A road trip in the future with the ARDUN powered service car looking forward to it. See you Sunday at the swap meet.
Ronnieroadster
 
I had Pertronix in my '41 forever. after a valve job it idled like crap. thought it was ignition
I had a spare pertronix and swapped it out and nothing. went back to my original and ok but lousy idle. contacted pertronix and they said send them back. a week or so later I received 2 new ignitor 1's. turns out my coil was way out of range for their ignition. I think my coil slowly went south but not enough to mess up the ignition but when I installed the spare it immediately burned out. other than that I've had great luck with Pertronix. FYI, the problem was a $7 PCV!
 
fordor41 said:
I had Pertronix in my '41 forever. after a valve job it idled like crap. thought it was ignition
I had a spare pertronix and swapped it out and nothing. went back to my original and ok but lousy idle. contacted pertronix and they said send them back. a week or so later I received 2 new ignitor 1's. turns out my coil was way out of range for their ignition. I think my coil slowly went south but not enough to mess up the ignition but when I installed the spare it immediately burned out. other than that I've had great luck with Pertronix. FYI, the problem was a $7 PCV!
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PCV valve? I thought it was the coil.:confused: Please clarify.
 
my crappy PVC gave me a bad idle. after I installed the new Pertronix ignition with a good coil, idle was still bad. then I discovered the PCV was bad. BTW, SBF in my '41.
 
Wow! Interesting; I never heard of anything like that. It's good to know that a bad PCV valve can cause this kind of problem.
 
tubman said:
Wow! Interesting; I never heard of anything like that. It's good to know that a bad PCV valve can cause this kind of problem.
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I'll try again. had a valve job done and engine ran good on the street but idled terrible. Changed plugs, wires, dist, carb, disconnected all vac from engine and still no good. That's when I changed the Pertronix ign. and ended up with a bad coil/ign. after getting ign and coil straight I discovered PCV was stuck in open
position. After changing the PCV, idle smoothed out, vac jumped up and got rid of "popping" out the exhaust
 
I recently converted my '54 Mercury 6V positive ground car to PerTronix ignition and coil. Car is now much easier to start and runs great.
 
fordor41 said:
I'll try again. had a valve job done and engine ran good on the street but idled terrible. Changed plugs, wires, dist, carb, disconnected all vac from engine and still no good. That's when I changed the Pertronix ign. and ended up with a bad coil/ign. after getting ign and coil straight I discovered PCV was stuck in open
position. After changing the PCV, idle smoothed out, vac jumped up and got rid of "popping" out the exhaust
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The pintle in the PCV must have been stuck or gone. It's supposed to limit flow at idle.
 
What ever was wrong, a new PCV solved my problem. Don't always believe if you shake a PCV and it rattles it is OK. My PCV rattled but was either in open position or close to open so my vac was low but steady. That's why I concentrated on anything that would effect all cylinders, to cause the low vac condition
 
A flathead requires a "balanced" ignition system . Correct distributor , point, condensor cap rotor and ignition cables .
One wrong part and the system will fail . ( usually a incorrect ignition coil) do some reasearch and then use the best you can buy and it will work forever !!!!!
 
This is a long shoot, I have asked petronox if the unit will trigger an MSD street fire unit , they said yes it will ,so have worded one.
Has any one done this, and its not for the 33 or 34 its for a customers rod.
Lawrie
 
just curious if you run an alternator or generator Mallory use to supply a little red box called a power cell they said fitment was optional on alternator but mandatory with generator due to the fact that gen voltage regs are mechanical and therefore create micro spikes when they work and their electronics don't like it
 
backrodebob, you state that your coil primary resistance is 1.6 ohms. In that case it should be used with a 1.5 ohm ballast resistor in series with the coil primary winding. Without the ballast resistor your coil primary current draw would be about 8 amps which is way to high for your Pertronix unit to handle and it is blowing up. The coil primary current draw should be only about 3 or 4 amps. Very important to understand how all these components work together. YOU CANT JUST GUESS HERE, EVERYTHING HAS TO BE CORRECT. I have had several pertronix units working in cars for over 30 years. Regards, Kevin.
 
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