Pertronix distributor install help needed

-
Oldschoolcuda

Oldschoolcuda

Early-A Body Nerd
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
5,454
Reaction score
3,562
Location
Chesapeake, Va
Installing a pertonix ignitor II in my 340 and first thing i noticed is that the rotor and shaft are positioned/clocked what looks like 45 degrees off from a stock or mopar performance dizzy. Engine is at TDC with stock dizzy rotor pointed at number one cylinder. Do not want to mess with intermediate shaft so thinking all i would need to do is change location of number one wire to match were rotor is pointing on pertronix cap and go from there routing wires to correct firing order. Any info. greatly appreciated. Thanks

Oldschoolcuda
 
Pertronix module into Mopar distributor, correct?

From the sounds of things, your distributor was not installed correctly to begin with. The rotor will remain synced to the cam position, so rewiring to move #1 cylinder 45 degrees will only produce frustration and backfires. It's not difficult to pull the distributor and reclock properly. Sounds like the right time to do it.
 
No Complete distributor. My previous dizzy was installed correctly.The pertronix unit just has the shaft slot & rotor clocked differently than stock unit. ( about 45 degrees difference ).

Oldschoolcuda
 
Pertronics distributors are clocked differently, and there is a discussion about it here somewhere, but to answer your question,

Yes, make sure at tdc the rotor is at the #one wire/plug from here keep the firing order as original.
 
Thanks TrailBeast. Thats what i figured as i know some aftermarket units are clocked different just did not expect it on the pertronix. of course no mention of this in instructions or on their website.

Oldschoolcuda
 
Oldschoolcuda said:
Thanks TrailBeast. Thats what i figured as i know some aftermarket units are clocked different just did not expect it on the pertronix. of course no mention of this in instructions or on their website.

Oldschoolcuda
Click to expand...

Yea, funny they don't mention that huh?
It's a simple solution, but maybe they don't mention it because less people would buy them?

Who knows.
 
From discussions on this board, "it might be" that other dists besides Pertronix are not necessarily clocked as per original.

"Someone else" mentioned that the distributor gear/ rotor "can point to China" and the thing will still run FINE

Hell, my first 57 Chev, I wasn't even aware that there WAS a "correct" way to orient the rotor. I still remember a gas station jock who was checking the oil, tell me "It can't run, the distributor is out of time" after I had just driven the car into his station!!!!

Now this DOES MATTER on some engines. The "odd fire" V6's and some 4 whangers have every other pair of cylinders firing close together, with a big wide space in between. But "traditional" straight six's and V8's don't matter in the least
 
Some depends on the length of plug wires on #5 and #7. Stock rotor location places the cap terminals closest to those plugs. They are also the problem childs for unwanted crossfire, and miss connections. I find myself hooking them up wrong unless I check myself a few times.
 
I was doing a timing chain and intake gaskets on a Chev 305cu one day in front of a guy like you talked about at the gas station, so just to screw with the "knowitall" I put the cam 180 off and the distributor 180 off.
As soon as he saw the timing chain lined up the way I did it he swore it was never going to run.

Won 20 bucks off him when it fired right up. :D



67Dart273 said:
From discussions on this board, "it might be" that other dists besides Pertronix are not necessarily clocked as per original.

"Someone else" mentioned that the distributor gear/ rotor "can point to China" and the thing will still run FINE

Hell, my first 57 Chev, I wasn't even aware that there WAS a "correct" way to orient the rotor. I still remember a gas station jock who was checking the oil, tell me "It can't run, the distributor is out of time" after I had just driven the car into his station!!!!

Now this DOES MATTER on some engines. The "odd fire" V6's and some 4 whangers have every other pair of cylinders firing close together, with a big wide space in between. But "traditional" straight six's and V8's don't matter in the least
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for input guys. After just firing up with no issues(pertronix curve is very nice out of the box) can vouch for the fact a sb mopar does not care about rotor pointing to number one cylinder as long as you are at tdc and number one and rotor match.

Oldschoolcuda
 
I ran into the same concern when installing Pertronix 3.. i also had to relocate #1 on dist cap .... and as long as firiing order is correct ... works like a charm ... NOTE :...The only issue i found after installing the Pertronix... i kept on burning out CHEAP elec regulators... would last one summer and then POOF... i invested in a good quality regulator and NO issues now ... FYI ...
 
Moving to a hall effect unit was enough for me as oldschool and don't fix it if it aint broke as i am. That costs as much as my mortgage- f-that. Plus it looks like it belongs in a toilet.LOL

Oldschoolcuda
 
67Dart273 said:
From discussions on this board, "it might be" that other dists besides Pertronix are not necessarily clocked as per original.

"Someone else" mentioned that the distributor gear/ rotor "can point to China" and the thing will still run FINE

Hell, my first 57 Chev, I wasn't even aware that there WAS a "correct" way to orient the rotor. I still remember a gas station jock who was checking the oil, tell me "It can't run, the distributor is out of time" after I had just driven the car into his station!!!!

Now this DOES MATTER on some engines. The "odd fire" V6's and some 4 whangers have every other pair of cylinders firing close together, with a big wide space in between. But "traditional" straight six's and V8's don't matter in the least
Click to expand...

intermediate shaft slot can be point at Moon..as long as rotor is point at #1 and no #1 on cap is line up with rotor.....and firing order on cap is correct..and #1 cylinder is at TDC

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=202092&highlight=moon
 
After worrying about stock location being an issue it is not. As long as you are tdc with rotor pointing to number one when stock dizzy is pulled rotor shaft does not have to point to number one on pertronix or would say any other aftermarket dizzy with different clocking. Cap & rotor just need to line up with number one regardless of location different clocking provides.

Oldschoolcuda
 
The only issue with distributor placement is having enough room to rotate the distributor for timing adjustment without the vacuum advance can hitting anything, if so equipped.

That said, I still like to assemble them by the book.
 
As oldschool as i am definitely understand by the book but when the technology in the book is dealing with 45 to 50 yr. old technology i'm starting to rethink my factory or the highway mentality process especially with ignition systems.Was not happy at first but changing stock #1 wire location was no big deal. Just took my cuda out for a spin with new dizzy (pertronix ignitor II set with 20 degree mechanical total & 18 initial set on my modded 340 compared to mopar performance dizzy with same mechanical initial and total). Definite seat of pants improvement and this is on a sub 13 sec. quarter mile 340 powered 65 cuda.

Oldschoolcuda
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top