F/U Pertronix Ignitor

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kittypancake

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Just a follow up on my Pertronix Ignitor, if anyone cares...
Installation was almost as easy as advertised...hada make the hole in the dist housing slightly bigger to accommodate the wires and grommet, ran red wire to red side of ballast resistor, black to negative side of coil and started it up.
It's only been a week, but I've noticed starting is MUCH easier and overall drivability much improved. I'll have to wait and see about durability, but at this juncture I'd say $70 well spent.
 
I have had one in one of my cars for 8 years now and I love it.......same as you said, my car starts easier, and idles nicer, and it's so smooth through the RPM range.
 
Everyone had one at one time or another and they work well. All the fancy stuff is just that, fancy stuff. I have one on my truck 20 years, no problems, For my fast stuff I have fast thingies..
 
I've used them for nearly 20 yrs. with great results. I first discovered them while working as a forklift mechanic. Forklifts used points all the way in to the early 90's and we converted every one we could to a Pertronix for reliability. I don't remember ever changing more than 1 that burned out.
 
For $70, you probably got the original Ignitor. Drawback is that it still requires a ballast resistor and regular coil (I think). For ~$100, you can get the Ignitor II which eliminates the ballast and allows running a better coil. Now there is the Ignitor III ($140?) that provides multi-spark discharge and rev limiter.
 
My brother put the Pertronix system on a 65 ford 289 :thumbrig:.
He never had a problem and it ran much better then the old points system.
I will change over to it one day :thumbup: these parts I keep in my trunk as a first add Kit.
I have had to change my ECU one time, but not a big deal for me.
When these parts are gone off the face of the planet 8-) it will be Pertronix.
I think :-k they are more forgiving if the Distributor ever starts wearing out (wiggle on shaft) it will read better I think, but I could be wrong.
 

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When it quits there is no warning,just quits. Carry a set of points and codenser just in case.
 
SO......... I have a bone stock slant six in my 70 Swinger. points, condenser, rotor, wires, balast resistor. This Pertronics thingy goes in place of the points. Just one wire to a stock balast resistor, one wire to the coil, a small hole drilled into the dizzy housing and thats it? Does this give me spark more on the lines of electronic ignition? I gotta look into this. With the installation of a dual carb intake, and split hedders I am looking for just a bit more pep out of the car while not giving up the reliability and driveabilty of the stock system I have now. My car NEVER fails to start and it can sit in rush hour traffic for a long time with no issues. NONE of my other vehicles are able to do this!
Chas.
 
ChazRam said:
SO......... I have a bone stock slant six in my 70 Swinger. points, condenser, rotor, wires, balast resistor. This Pertronics thingy goes in place of the points. Just one wire to a stock balast resistor, one wire to the coil, a small hole drilled into the dizzy housing and thats it? Does this give me spark more on the lines of electronic ignition? I gotta look into this. With the installation of a dual carb intake, and split hedders I am looking for just a bit more pep out of the car while not giving up the reliability and driveabilty of the stock system I have now. My car NEVER fails to start and it can sit in rush hour traffic for a long time with no issues. NONE of my other vehicles are able to do this!
Chas.
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It has 2 wires that connect directly to the coil. The red wire hooks up to the positive side and the black wire hooks up to the negative side. There's also a magnetic trigger that slides down over the point rubbing block, You don't always need to drill the hole bigger, sometimes it's big enough already. Worse case scenario is you have to enlarge it a a little bit. It is essentially a compact electronic ignition unit. A point system is a pretty fool proof system but the drawback is you have to swap points out every so often, most of the time they only last about 10,000 miles. And they don't produce as hot of a spark.
 
At first I thought this was a negative thread about the petronix, I read f/u as soemthing different than follow up. I ahve had the ignitor on a 318 and a 273 and no problem. I have thought about buying a spare to carry with for emergencies.
 
Yeah, just like a balast resistor in the glovebox as a spare one of these joining it cant hurt either. Thanks Fishy, Kittypancake stated he ran his a bit different. If its two wires, both to the coil thats even easier. For me appearance is everything. I did not want to do this because I hate extra wiring under the hood winding around in plain sight. Two wires down there isnt gonna be an issue. Guess its time to look into a kit for my car. Since the motor its going on is sitting on a stand I can get this on easy. Thanks a bunch!!
Chas.
 
I ran both wires to the coil and wrapped them with electrical tape to make them look like one wire. Unless you know what you are looking for, it isn't obvious that it is there.
 
ChazRam said:
SO......... I have a bone stock slant six in my 70 Swinger. points, condenser, rotor, wires, balast resistor. This Pertronics thingy goes in place of the points. Just one wire to a stock balast resistor, one wire to the coil, a small hole drilled into the dizzy housing and thats it? Does this give me spark more on the lines of electronic ignition? I gotta look into this. With the installation of a dual carb intake, and split hedders I am looking for just a bit more pep out of the car while not giving up the reliability and driveabilty of the stock system I have now. My car NEVER fails to start and it can sit in rush hour traffic for a long time with no issues. NONE of my other vehicles are able to do this!
Chas.
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wiring depends on the Ignitor model you choose. Pertronix Ignitor goes to + side ballast resistor and - side coil. To the best of my knowledge, it does not produce hotter spark alone, but they do make a 40k volt coil that's compatable for about $30.
 
I wish they'd come out with an Ignitor 3. I'd get one.
 
Rug_Trucker said:
I am thinking that the GM HEI conversion would be easier and cheaper for parts and availability.
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The advantage of the Pertronix is that you can use your existing distributor. There were similar earlier electronic conversions, like the Crane Cams XR700 I have on two cars. Pertronix fits the module inside the distributor as well. You can't get much simpler than it. I think their Ignitor II is equivalent to the GM HEI in performance. Their Ignitor III is superior w/ MSD.

HEI is easiest for a SB or RB engine, with a "ready to run" distributor" for ~$45 (ebay). They don't yet make it for a slant or BB engine, so you require a later Mopar electronic distributor. Then you must figure where to mount the HEI module. I recall one guy sells a plate to mount it to the bottom of the slant distributor. Others have posted photos. I put the 8-pin HEI module on my 64 slant, but haven't run yet.

Cost and complexity depends on many things. Is your points distributor re-usable? How much for an e-distributor (I got one new for $40). What coil will you use? You don't get much bang using the original points coil and ballast. Are you adding an MSD box? What I wouldn't do is pay the $250 I see listed for an original Mopar electronic setup. That keeps the ballast, weak coil, difficult wiring, and gives an often problematic module.
 
I have a Pertronix in my car and love it! I forget about it being there. I do carry another distributor in the trunk only because of the commentary on the forums.
My question is: Has anyone on here ever had one fail on them?
I don't want to hear about your buddies cousins wifes Dart. Just first hand experience. Just curious. Things do fail sometimes but I wondered what the frequency of it. Thanks, Dennis
 
Rug_Trucker said:
I am thinking that the GM HEI conversion would be easier and cheaper for parts and availability.
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Can't sway I agree. It doesn't get any easier than removing your points and bolting a Pertronix directly in place. You don't have to pull the dist. if you don't want so there's no need to adjust the timing (I know that only takes 5 minutes but it's still another step). The first Pertronix conversion I did took me 20 minutes. As for performance, unless you upgrade the stock HEI module to a performance one the Pertronix has to be at least as good. Sure the HEI puts out a lot of voltage but voltage isn't everything. They start falling off (misfiring) quickly above 4500 rpm. Yeah an HEI module can be bought at most any parts store whereas the Pertronix can't but with the Pertronix system you can also change it back to the original points system as quickly as you could swap a HEI module so all you have to do is carry the original points and condenser in your tool box.
 
fishy68 said:
They start falling off (misfiring) quickly above 4500 rpm. Yeah an HEI module can be bought at most any parts store whereas the Pertronix can't but with the Pertronix system you can also change it back to the original points system as quickly as you could swap a HEI module so all you have to do is carry the original points and condenser in your tool box.
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Funny, my stock points can easily spin to 5000. Swapping points on the side of the road with a slant in the dark? Little screws down on the dark side of the motor.

I'll pay a dollar to watch that.
 
valiant1966 said:
I have a Pertronix in my car and love it! I forget about it being there. I do carry another distributor in the trunk only because of the commentary on the forums.
My question is: Has anyone on here ever had one fail on them?
I don't want to hear about your buddies cousins wifes Dart. Just first hand experience. Just curious. Things do fail sometimes but I wondered what the frequency of it. Thanks, Dennis
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I put one in my wife's 66 mustang gt 289 about 8 years ago, it worked great until a few weeks ago. My wife decided to sell the car and moved it to wash and wax. She went to start it to put it away and turn over but no fire pertronix just died. I just put points and condenser back in and fired right up. If she planned on keeping the car I would put another one in it just carry points and condenser with me. Things fail some times but I would buy again.
 
67cudafb said:
I put one in my wife's 66 mustang gt 289 about 8 years ago, it worked great until a few weeks ago. My wife decided to sell the car and moved it to wash and wax. She went to start it to put it away and turn over but no fire pertronix just died. I just put points and condenser back in and fired right up. If she planned on keeping the car I would put another one in it just carry points and condenser with me. Things fail some times but I would buy again.
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8 years is not a bad service life really
 
67cudafb said:
moved it to wash and wax.
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The Pertronix may not have died. It is likely she just got condensation in the distributor cap. When you put in the points, you let it dry out. Happened to my 69 Dart (w/ points) after a thunderstorm on the Gulf. A coworker just sprayed WD-40 inside the cap and it fired up. In the movie "Into the Wild" the kid thinks his Datsun died for good after the flood. If you read the book, the Park Rangers found the car, dried the distributor cap and it started right up. They drove it as a government car for decades, since the owner couldn't be found, and it was the most dependable vehicle they had.
 
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