Petronics Electronic ignition on a 52 v8

S

Smoker

Junior Member
Has anyone had any experience with a Petronics Electronic ignition, either good or bad? I'm on my second one now, the first only lasted about 50 miles. I'm using a Flame Thrower coil, 40,000 volts. I'm hoping the first one I had was defective and this one I have now will be better. I am thinking of going back to points, rotor & condenser.
 
After installing hundreds of these units i can honestly say the most likely cause of failure is a incorrect coil. AND in many cases was supplied by pertronixs or suggested etc.
Got to have some internal resistance in the coil of approx 1.5 ohms and some of the flamethrower coils are less than one ohm causing too high of current and will smoke the module.
Check your coil for resistance across the pos and neg terminals.
I am assuming its 12 volts neg ground?????? And .025 plug gap ????
 
I asune your converting the Load-a-matic Distributir. This distributor has many issues, most pertaining to the advance mechanism. Adding an electronic replacement for the points will not cure this. There are only a few distributors that can improve the performance and economy of the 8BA engine: The MSD w/vac, a Modified SBC init with Vacuum advance. There are others but these ceem to be the easiest to tune. Adding a hot coil can have a bad affect on the cap and rotor.
 
I've always used the Mallory Unilite with the Mallory coil and resistor in my 8BA engines.
 
This is a good unit for making power, However it dosn't have a vacuum advance for economy. A street engine needs both.
 
I have a Accel 8140 over the counter at Oreily's...starts no matter what.
34 stock motor with Petronix ignition.
 
Take a serious look at the Bosch blue coil. After some coaching that I received from Jim Linder (Bubba), I purchased one of these to replace the piece of crap flame thrower coil that had caused my Pertronix to fail. The resistance on the Bosch is 3.2 Ohm - ideal for the Pertronix.
 
I ran the Petronics system with the same coil for about three years on my 52 flatty and had no problems. Give Petronics a call they helped me when I initially installed the system.
On my recent rebuild I picked up one of Bubbas GM conversions....
 
Chap52
Does you converted GM dose have an adjustable mechanical and Vacuum advance?? With out these, you loose the ability to tune the curve for your application.
 
BUBBAS IGNITION said:
After installing hundreds of these units i can honestly say the most likely cause of failure is a incorrect coil. AND in many cases was supplied by pertronixs or suggested etc.
Got to have some internal resistance in the coil of approx 1.5 ohms and some of the flamethrower coils are less than one ohm causing too high of current and will smoke the module.
Check your coil for resistance across the pos and neg terminals.
I am assuming its 12 volts neg ground?????? And .025 plug gap ????
Click to expand...

Yes, it is 12 volt, negative ground, and I think .030 plug gap.

Would swapping the flamethrower for a stock 12 volt coil be a better idea?
 
I have had mine for 8 or 9 years with no problem along with the Flamethrower coil ,love it.The only way to go ,jmo.I have a 97 carb for sale.If interested you can see it on my profile page .Reconditioned by Gas Alley Streetrods in Kansas .Im open for offers .Installing a four barrel.
 
Have a 6 volt positive grd. Pertronix set-up in my 1952 F1 - with a Flamethrower coil - works GREAT and has for about 3 or 4 years now. No way would I go back to points and condenser, etc.
 
The most common trouble with electronic ignition conversions is the virtually unregulated voltage system in old cars. Properly set up on a machine, the stock ignition on old Fords should last for years with the limited driving most receive. If you are having problems with your stock distributor, be aware that the market is full of inferior point sets. Many have shorted insulators or missing/poor threads in the wire attachment. Others have very weak springs. Some have to be bent considerably to get the point surfaces to mate. This isn't "back alley stuff", but sold by at least one major vendor.
 
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