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Re: Pertronix Ignitor II --Any Feedback

To: John Brawley <johnjb_44@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Pertronix Ignitor II --Any Feedback
From: SJC Worldwide <ssage@socal.rr.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 21:47:51 -0700
John Brawley wrote:

> Group
>
> A few days ago someone posted a note asking about the spark plug gap for the
> new Pertronix Ignitor II.  I am considering this upgrade and just wondered
> if anyone have any comments or feedback on the NEW (not old ignitor) Ignitor
> II after they installed on their Tiger.
>
> Thanks for the help.
>
> John
> _________________________________________________________________

Hello John:
I just installed the Ignitor II and the "Flamethrower" coil that goes along with
it, replacing my dual point set up. I set the plug gaps at .045, and bypassed
the ballast resistor as they recommend. It was a very easy conversion. I also
replaced the distributor cap, rotor and spark plug wires (with 8mm MSD wires).
The car does seem to pull more powerfully all the way up as far as I dare to
rev.

However, the new ignition has created one glitch for me. I had wondered why my
previous dual points had to be re-adjusted every couple of weeks (I drive the
Tiger every day), and the plastic ends of both sets of points that rub against
the distributor shaft were wearing pretty quickly, requiring the re-adjustments.
That said, the car did idle pretty smoothly. Now, with the Petronix II, I get a
pretty erratic idle. On closer checking, it appears the distributor shaft has
some wobble to it (looks like it's an original option dual point from way back
when), that the dual points were able to cover up. Now that the spark is
triggered by the magnet ring, the gap between the ring and the module in the
distributor car is varying too much at idle, causing the funky idle. When the
revs get over 1000 or more, it smooths out, as seems logical. So, it's out with
the distributor next week to see if I can get it re-bushed.

I took the car to a mechanic with a Sun scope machine today after I got a big
electrical "jolt" after touching the #1 plug wire while checking that my new
plug wires and plugs were OK. #1 was not firing properly at idle at 750-900 RPM,
but smoothed out  and fired over 1,000. We removed the magnet ring on the
distributor shaft and re-positioned it differently and, sure enough, #1 fired OK
and another plug started messing up, again primarily at idle, confirming that
shaft wobble. .

As to the shock I got from the wire, the guess from the mechanic is that, with
the new coil putting out a lot of "juice", the wobbling distributor shaft is in
effect causing, at idle, a spark firing at the wrong time and following the
course of least resistance, up that plug wire. This is the one part of the story
that I'm not sure makes sense. I exhanged Any ideas about this out there?

I'm not about to repeat my shocking experience by grabbing the wire to the plug
that's misfiring at idle now. By the way, I temporarily changed back to the
original plug wire on the offending cylinders and the particular plug at the
time still behaved the same, so the wires seem OK.

Steve Sage
1967 MK1A

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