• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Spitfire 45DE4 Distributor Pertronix Installation

Share this page

A

alexcarruthers

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
So my spit doesn't always start. It will work fine, turn it off and 10 minutes later it wont start and 10 minutes after that it'll start again. When it's not starting there is no spark. Tried a new coil, etc... and I've narrowed it down to the ****ty electronic ignition that came with the car. After looking around online, the general consensus on this system is that it's a minor miracle that it still sometimes starts. Bought myself a Pertronix unit for it (figured it was the easiest/cheapest way of resolving the issue).
Now, this distributor has a box on the side of it that all the wires for the current electronic ignition go into. I'm not sure where I should cut the current wires or if that box even has to go back on afterwards(I think it does, the vacuum advance goes right through it). I haven't had time to install the pertronix system yet, but I was wondering if anybody else has had to install one on this distributor and if so can offer any sort of guidance on what I'll find inside this mystery box when I do get the chance.
 
I installed a Pertronix to my early Spitfires- standard distributors. I'm wondering if the instructions for the Pertronix wouldn't include that.

T.T.
 
The earlier distributors would have had points from new while the 45DE4 and 45DM4 would have been electronic from the start.

I Googled for instructions for the Pertronix 45DE4/DM4 instructions and found nothing. The most helpful thread I found is linked below:
https://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,1782335
I think the one guy has really confused what is on his car as he keeps referring to it as a 25DE4. To the best of my knowledge the 45 series replaced the 25 series. Apart from that there are a few pictures and a bit of information in the thread that you may find useful.

EDIT: It's worth pointing out that in the thread linked above, post #7 if by Jeff Schlemmer of Advanced Distributors. You can take his statements as Gospel.
 
Back
Top