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TR2/3/3A Timing ?

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I'm also not a fan of Pertronix. I had one on my Porsche for a while, and it worked OK, but I was very careful not to do anything that might fry it. Like, leaving the ign on without the engine running.

In order to make that li'l sucker fit into the space in the distributor, it's inevitable that some aspect of the design has to be compromised, probably seriously. If you want to use an electronic ignition, which I think is still a good thing to do, I'd recommend getting something else.
 
Hmm, I would try running a hot wire directly from the battery to the coil. Sounds like you may be fighting a bad connection somewhere.

What do you have for a wiring harness? If it's original, how did you deal with joining the wires for A and A1?

It should be able to run fine (for a few hours) with the alternator not working at all; so I think that is very unlikely to be the problem.

I will comment though that I once had a somewhat similar problem with a Crane ignition; which was eventually traced to the rotor contacting the pickup inside the distributor. Not hard enough to tear anything up, but apparently enough to confuse it only sometimes.

Also worth asking perhaps, what are you using for distributor cap and plug wires. I've had problems in the past caused by trying to use carbon core wires with the original style "piercing screw" cap. You might be able to learn something by connecting an ohmmeter between the terminal inside the cap, and the terminal for the plug; then tugging gently on the wire.

A bad wire can also cause the rotor to fail in a surprisingly short amount of time. Friend of mine had that problem on the way home from VTR in Oregon; he bought and installed a new rotor at the show and within 200 miles it wouldn't run at all. One of the plug wires was bad.
 
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