Pertronix issue

[rtylerwinslow]

I received my Pertronix Ignitor electroni ignition in the mail the other day. I went home and tried to put it on and found a couple problems. The grounding strap that they expect me to to attach to the far side of the ignitor plate isn't long enough. Am I missing something,or do you just have to solder an extra bit of wire in there? Also, they told me to run the Ignitor wires through a hole in the distributer (sp?) housing. I didn't find one and I really looked. Am and that blind/dumb? or is there not one? I was looking at the clip that holds the ground in place on the housing and thought that it would be easy to drill a hole throught that and it would work, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in Advance,

Tyler

 

[Dave Russell]

Hi Tyler,
First - Make sure that you have the correct Pertronix for your car. If it is negative ground, there should be a black wire & a red wire on the module. If it is for a positive fround car, there will be a black wire & a black wire with white stripe. The two units are not interchangeable. Your 74 should be negative ground & use the module with red & black wires.

The flexible ground wire can connect under either of the two breaker plate hold down screws. Connect it to the closest one.

There is a molded white plastic terminal block that slips into a slot in the distributor housing and the breaker plate. Remove this block & replace it with the rubber block that is furnished. Run the two module wires out through the hole in this rubber block. Secure the two module wires so that the portion between the module & the rubber block cannot rub or foul on the rotating parts. Couple of wire ties. Leave enough slack so that the point mounting plate can rotate slightly as the vacuum advance moves the breaker plate.

Connect the red Pertronix wire to the + side of the coil along with the white ignition wire from the ignition switch.

Connect the black Pertronix wire to the - coil terminal, no other connections.

Very important:
This description assumes that your car originally has the non ballasted ignition coil. The CORRECT coil will measure around three ohms across it's two small terminals. A coil intended for ballasted use will have a resistance of about 1.5 ohms & DIFFERENT wiring is required. See last paragraph. If in doubt, with the ignition on & everything connected as original, Measure the voltage from the + side of the coil (white wire) to ground. If it has a ballasted coil you should read about 6 to 8 volts when the points are closed & 12 volts when the points are open. If the coil is non-ballasted, there should be a full twelve volts under all conditions.

Make sure that the slipover trigger sleeve is fully pushed down on the cam. If it sits too high, the rotor will rub on the inside of the cap & do damage. You can trim a small amount off the bottom of the rotor to let it sit down lower if needed.

The only shortcoming of the Pertronix is that you only get one try at getting the connections right. It will be damaged if anything is not right.

I could email very complete installation instructions from another source if you wish. I think it is copyrighted so don't wish to indiscrimently publish it.
Good luck,
D

 

[rtylerwinslow]

Thanks a lot for the information/advice. I think your explanation should do it for me. I'll go buy a voltage/ohm meter (something I would have skipped and just used my tried and semi-true guess and check method). I'll let you know if I blow anything up : )

 

[Bruce74B]

Dave,

Thanks for an excellent post...a definate candiate for the knowledge base election to me. I have been thinking about swapping the old points for a Pertronix system and you have sold me. I would love to see the additional information and if it is copyrighted by Pertronix, I am sure you would be doing them a favor by sharing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif it.

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif