Hi Mike:
It's my understanding that many modern cars have the ballast resistor bypass
built in at the factory. Probably that's disappearing with the modern
distributorless systems. That being said, I don't have the bypass installed
on my Crane unit and the car starts very well. I think I was very scientific
about buying a ballast; I rummaged around in a bin at Canadian Tire and
bought one for $5 back in 1995 when I tried to start the engine (years
before getting the car on the road). One of thos lumps of ceramic with two
plugs sticking out. Now it's got a crack in it from heat, but still seems to
work. Go figure.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: michael lunsford [mailto:mblunsfordsr@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 11:05 AM
To: 6pack@autox.team.net
Subject: Pertronix Ignition
Here we go agin but I couldn't help but but my 2 cents worth in even though
it may not be worth that. I had a Petronix in my early 6 for about 3 years
and it worked fine. Finally, after a trip of about 300 miles it started to
break up at about 3000 rpms. I briefly put the points back in and that
cured the problem. Later I replaced it with a Crane optical setup but could
never get rid of an erratic miss when warm taking off from a stop. During
the course of my education in the school of hard knocks on this subject the
Crane people told a friend of mine that to use their product and for the
Petronix ignition they recommended that the installation of a ballast
resistor to reduce overheating. My friend also had a petronix ignition that
he traded me for the Crane and I installed it several weeks ago along with a
ballast resistor. In order to get it to work right with the ballast
resistor I also had to install a wire from the starter engagement lug on the
ignition switch to!
the +
side of the coil. I also had to install a diode (2 for $1.99 at Radio
Shack) to eliminate the grounding effect (engine shut down) when the starter
was not engaged. As I understand it (a little knowledge is a terrible
thing) I now get 12 volts to the coil when the starter is cranking and 8 or
so volts after the starter is released. This supposedly reduces the voltage
to the Petronix (or Crane for that matter) and keeps it from overheating in
the same fashon that the old ignition with a ballast resistor or resistor
wire did for the points. It remains to be seen if the Petronix is as
durable as the old points with the ballast resistor but at this point it
starts and runs better with the Petronix than it did with points. Of course
I still keep a set of points in the glove box.
Mike Lunsford, 1970 TR6
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