What's Wrong With My Old Ignition?

"Andrew P. Collins" (andrewpcollins)
09/06/2016 at 18:04 • Filed to: DIY, I Need Advice

I’ve now melted two PerTronix Ignitor points-replaceers in my ’75 Scout’s distributor. If that means anything to you... help?

A PerTronix Ignitor is that little black box you see under my distributor cap here. It is air-gapped off that black collar below the rotor. The idea is it replaces the need for “points” somehow.

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I learned (the hard way) that when you leave a vehicle with a PerTronix Ignitor with the key “on” but the engine not running, power keeps going to the distributor and melts the Ignitor.

Ok, common issue, I learned, so I got a new Ignitor. New distributor cap and rotor for good measure.

Hooked it up, triple-checked + was + and - was -, cranked the truck over, and a trail of smoke came out of the new Ignitor after maybe 30 seconds of cranking.

Now I guess I need another Ignitor... but I would rather not fry a third one. Any suggestions before I give up and get it towed to a real mechanic?

DISCUSSION (16)

StoneCold > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 18:11

Stock voltage regulator?

crowmolly > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 18:12

http://www.mgexp.com/article/pertro…

This guy appears to have a decent amount of experience with their installs.

I seem to remember the newer version of the Ignitor (Ignitor II?) has protection built in against burn-ups.

Andrew P. Collins > StoneCold
09/06/2016 at 18:14

Donno. But I do know the truck was running great with an Ignitor before I blew it up.

Andrew P. Collins > crowmolly
09/06/2016 at 18:14

Nice, thanks.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 18:19

It means you need to embrace technology and get an EFI and digital spark setup.

lone_liberal > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 18:31

It’s possible that the first one caused some kind of damage when it went. You might want to double check all of the wiring and the coil for a short to ground.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 18:37

The Corvair crowd has had oddly mixed successes with Pertronics units as well.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 18:51

I would think a bad coil, but I’ve never tried to do a conversion like that before. On the race car my dad just went full pointless ignition like MSD.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 19:21

I tried Pertronix in my Z, they totally sucked and broke twice. I have MSD now with no issues.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
09/06/2016 at 19:22

Well they were shit for me!

MM54 > Andrew P. Collins
09/06/2016 at 19:31

Was your ignition formerly fed through a resistive wire, which you removed when installing the pertonix unit? Could need a new ‘non-resistor’ coil.

Also the don’t-leave-the-key-on thing you mentioned; that was my first guess. I think the newer ones (I think they’re on v3) aren’t as susceptible to burning up that way.

Die-Trying > MM54
09/06/2016 at 21:20

THIS....... some setups need to have the original resistive wire, or a voltage drop in them, or they will melt the pick up............ its in the instructions.....

*edit........ and sometimes tachometers that are on their way out will kill them too...........

Thisnewformatisrubbish > Andrew P. Collins
09/07/2016 at 19:06

Adapt an oem distributor like a 77 to 84 gm hei. You can’t beat them.

NostalgicCarLife > Andrew P. Collins
09/08/2016 at 09:39

Funny enough this topic was just brought up over here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewt…

elev8r > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
09/08/2016 at 10:55

I have a pertronix ignitor and coil (PNX-1281 and PNX-40001) on my 1965 ford falcon and not only does it work great, it solved all kinds of funky problems I had with the car intermittently stalling. This probably doesn’t help you though.

elev8r > NostalgicCarLife
09/08/2016 at 10:58

yes...I think you need to run the pertronix ignitor and coil together. Andrew, what coil are you using?