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Petronix

pace

Senior Member
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Tried to start my car and no fire. While working under the hood, I accidently knocked off the wire from the coil to the body. When I hooked it back up, I hooked it to the neg rather than pos side of the coil. My question is, when I tried to start the car with it hooked in this position, would it fry the Petronix in the dizzy. I only turned it over a few times and I thought I had just knocked the wire off since I have done it before. Saw my stupid mistake when I popped the hood and now I am not getting any fire. Help would be appreciated. My car is a neg ground.

Mike
 
I never tried that but I assume there is a good chance to fry the pertronix chip. I can not imagine that the chip has wrong current protection.


Chris
 
Pace, there is something amiss here. If your car is negative ground then there is no wire from the coil to the body. both wires of the pertronix connect directly to the coil.---Keoke-- ?

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/savewave.gif Mike
Then this suggests you have a Positive ground car. What color are the wires attached to the Pertronix and which terminal of the battery is connected to chassis.---Keoke
 
Speaking from experience, power in the system + crossed wires = new Pertronix. The biggest disadvantage with the Pertronix system is they are easily ruined by errant electrical flow. You must be very careful while working with them. Disconnect your power source and triple check everything before giving it juice.
 
Thanks Doug, that's what I thought but it never hurts to check. Sure will be more careful when hooking up.

Mike
 
Sorry, I stated it wrong and was leaving out the red wire in my discription.

From coil, pos side solid white to wiring harness, black to dizzy from neg side of coil, red to dizzy from pos side of coil.

I hope I stated it right this time. Wiring is my weakness as you can see.

Mike
 
Yep Pace, that is the way it should be for Neg Ground. Well here is my best slightly confused answer. I think you fried the module since you removed the protective 3 Ohms DC resistance of the coil normally in series with the module and placed a full 12 Volts across it !. Here's hoping that did not happen and it will return to life for you. :G---Fwiw---Keoke
 
I agree with Keoke. With the coil out of the system, you connected the Pertronix black wire directly to +12V. As soon as you switched on the ignition, the Ignitor was passing as much current as possible... it was a dead short. The Pertronix units don't like flowing more than about 4 Amps on about a 50% duty cycle. I'm afraid it's time to buy a new Pertronix or go back to points.
 
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