No fun Sunday with the TR

[GilsTR]

Car: TR3B
Goal: Be ready for the end of month Triumphest / VTR in San Luis Obispo.
After much hard work the car is ready to go to Triumphest.
Decide to take a nice 3 hour ride to the coast to prove the
car is all set to go. Less than 1 hour into the ride the engine dies...just like the key was turned off. Caught a ride home and took the trailer back to collect the car. Having just had the distributor rebuilt...called him...and he thought it was a bad rotor...which he mailed me. Well...it wasn't the rotor...The Pertronix had taken a dump. Replaced it and bingo...fired right up. All set to go now...right?
All of a sudden noticed water leaking from the 1 year old Wizard Alum. radiator! How could that happen! Lucky...had a spare Alum radiator on hand for the sons TR3 we are working on. So...spent Sunday pulling the apron and radiator out.
Yes...will get it all together...and yes...will be at Triumphest / VTR! See you there!
Gil

 

[TR4]

Great Never Say Die story!!!

Now go enjoy Triumphest...........and share your story with others there. I'm sure you'll hear many more.

 

[Gliderman8]

The problem with your TR makes me nervous.... I have read a few times about the sudden failure of the the Pertronix ignition system. Just last week, a friend of mine got so disgusted about his SECOND Pertronix failing, that he just went back to the points.
I am currently running with the Pertronix in my TR6 and have about 800 miles on it since installing it. No, I don't carry a spare. My question is: Should I carry a spare Pertronix? or Is there something more dependable I should think about installing?

 

[TR4]

I've been running Pertronix for 4 years now in my TR4 with no problems. I do carry the old points with me.

 

[tdskip]

Guys - what coil are you running with your Pertronix? Having just been through this - well nearly been through this - I think a number of the failures that I've been told about came down to the wrong coil.

Gil - sorry to hear of the troubles but hey, that is what shake down rides are all about right?

 

[Gliderman8]

Guys - what coil are you running with your Pertronix?

I'm running with the stock coil and have no intentions of replacing it as long as it's working. To me, spark= ignition and that's all I care about.
Has anyone found any product to be superior (more dependable) to the Pertronix?

 

[Marvin Gruber]

I have a Pertronix in my TR6 and XKE. So far no problems but last week at our car show I watched a TR6 pull up and as the driver put the car in reverse the TR6 engine sputters and dies. It does not crank back up. Owner checks things out, he has the same Pertronix as I have. He changes out the coil, no difference. He put the old set of points back in, cranks great. He said the Pertronix was about 6 months old. Have few a couple more stories about the Pertronix going bad but so far so good with mine.

Marv

 

[GilsTR]

Update:
The car is running again...and running very good.
Will drive around town a little...and by the end of
the week put the apron back on.
Watch our Triumphest / VTR...Here we come month end!
Gil

 

[tdskip]

Marv - was the guy using a 3 OHM coil? I bet a lot of the Pertronix issues are down to the wrong coil being used and burning out the Pertronix....

 

[Brosky]

I am running the Pertronix (with ballast)coil with the Pertronix ignition. No problems to date. Knock on wood!!

 

[poolboy]

FROM THE PERTRONIX PACKAGE

The coil you need to use (3 or 1.5 ohm) depends on how much voltage you feed it. 3 ohm for a 12 volt continuous feed; 1.5 for a ballasted system.
The ratio of the wire coils within the coil is different for each so that both are capable of producing the same voltage to the spark plug.
The points or the Pertronix are a switch to send a voltage feed to the coil.
If you feed a ballsted coil (1.5 ohm) the constant 12 volts required for a non-ballasted (3.0 ohm ) coil, among other things, you'll probably shorten the coil's life.

 

[TR3driver]

Oddly enough, Pertronix actually recommends their 1.5 ohm coil used without a ballast, for a V8.

But in general, their instructions agree with poolboy, and following the manufacturer's recommendation is probably the right thing to do.

Just curious, has anyone had an electronics failure with the Crane conversion with the LED on the box? Keeping the power transistor away from engine heat, and having a circuit to shut down the power transistor if the key is left on just seems to make more sense to me. I ran an XR3000 for about 5 years, and the only electrical problem was when the screw for the ground wire wasn't tight enough.

 

[mallard]

I had a Crane XR700 in my TR6 for at least 15 years without a problem. I took it out last year after I had the distibutor rebuilt by Advance and put in the Petronix. I had the Crane mounted under the fuse box and you would never now it was there. The old Crane was a little harder to install because you had to align the eye with top dead center. I had an old cap with a hole in it that I would use. Sometimes I wonder why I changed it. Must have had $80.00 dollars burning a hole in my pocket at the time.