Pertronic ignition

[bigjoe1]

I have used them many times in mild street engines with no problem. Today, I have one in a hot street racer type engine, and it starts to miss fire at 62-6300. It starts very well, and sounds very good as lower speeds, but it will not rev past 6300 with a full dyno load without missing. These are the distributors that are fully self contained. They do NOT require and hook up to a box. Once before I had a similar thing happen, but it would rev to 6700 before it began to miss fire.Any help would be appreciated very much.


JOE SHERMAN RACING

[wfolarry]

I have Pertronix on my boat. Had the same thing happen [not as high RPM]. Turned out the magnets came loose. Put a new one in & back to WOT.

[tjs44]

Big Joes has found 6700 is the limit on the ones that have been in my engines.Tom

[Tuner]

You sure it doesn't have a rev limiter you need to adjust?

[cjperformance]

What plug gap? - have you tried closing the gap a little.

Are you running locked or mech advance? Where is the rotor/cap phasing at the rpm you have the miss.

Does the dissy have a good quality earth?

Is your coil the correct spec that Pertronix requires?

And yes- check the rpm limit if its a model with a limiter!

[Kevin Johnson]

http://www.pertronix.com.au/troubleshooting.html

Possibly low voltage under load.

[BOOT]

Any changes to wiring around it or in general?

[modok]

What is the current limit and what coil? is it a v-8?

petronix made a lot of stuff. I don't really know what your talking about, but I don't need to know. If you want to figure it out, we can.

[bigjoe1]

I have rub Pertronic distributors many times on my dyno. This same thing happened several years ago, but it would rev to 6700 before it muss fired. I am oping to replace the Pertronics with an MSD unit because That is what my regular dyno ignition. At least I will see if the Pertronic unit is the problem, once and for all. It is not clear if I can run the Pertronic distributor with my MSD Digital 7 electronics.



JOE SHERMAN RACING

[GARY C]

I have rub Pertronic distributors many times on my dyno. This same thing happened several years ago, but it would rev to 6700 before it muss fired.
JOE SHERMAN RACING

So what did you do to fix it then?

[bigjoe1]

When I called the Pertronic help line, they told me that it was pretty common to be RPM limited to about that RPM ( 6700 ) I left it that way, to act as a rev limiter. This 434 I built I want it to go to 7000 RPM, that is my delema right now .



JOE SHERMAN RACING.

[Rick Finsta]

Joe I dealt with one of their engineers on a dwell question and they were really, really good about getting into the nitty-gritty via email. I was interacting with Brad Sheridan.

I have had no trouble with one of their coil-in-cap HEI units running smoothly to 6800RPM+ but initially I had issues with a too-wide plug gap.

[tjs44]

Joe,when I bring the engine over I will bring a points unit also.Tom

[cjperformance]

Joe I dealt with one of their engineers on a dwell question and they were really, really good about getting into the nitty-gritty via email. I was interacting with Brad Sheridan.

I have had no trouble with one of their coil-in-cap HEI units running smoothly to 6800RPM+ but initially I had issues with a too-wide plug gap.

Yes, my 1st stop with a high rpm pertronix miss is plug gap. That said I always initially make sure the dissy has good earth/power, correct coil and rotor phase.
Start with .032" plug gap

[ZEOHSIX]

I have run Ignitor 3 units paired with the 0.32 ohm coils to over 7500RPMs. I had the 1st style Pertronix Ignitor on a solid roller 355 that went 14K street miles running 12.28@117MPH drag times and making 432HP on a accurate engine dyno....373RWHP on a chassis dyno. I have often found weak output from Ignitor units caused by broken grounds inside distributors (GM Delco) and troubleshoot these problems by hooking up new grounding wires from points mounting plates through the cap adjustment window to a ground on the block.

I have to say that I wasn't very happy when Pertronix went to China to source ignition coils and have seen RPM problems out of their epoxy filled coils, my installations tend to go on Muscle Car restorations and I use the black ignition coils. I also seal the rev limiter adjuster opening with some silicone after setting it to prevent moisture entering the unit.

My buddy in Australia managed to kill his Ignitor by pulling out the coil wire from the ignition coil and having the spark jump from the secondary tower to the negative side of the coil terminals....killing the Ignitor unit...I always attach a spark testing unit onto a Ignitor ignition and have to say from personal observations that the "pop" of a spark out of an Ignitor 3 using a 0.32ohm coil commands respect....sounds as sharp and strong as a MSD 6 unit.

I've used around 25 Pertronix units since Perlux Corporation introduced them back in the 80's many in daily drivers including the 66 Mustang my wife daily drove for years (she drives a Lexus now ) The only problem I ever encountered beside broken points plate grounds was an improperly shimmed distributor in an old style unit was lightly contacting the pickup/sensor unit and the contact between the magnet ring and the pickup loosened the rivets up resulting in another poor ground source...the rivets were aluminum, we used steel ones in the repair and reshimmed the distributor....the unit went on to live a long life.

It's been about 2-3 years since I've installed a Pertronix on a build...can't say for shure where present quality level is right now....that's the sad state of affairs in USA manufacturing...if they farmed out the production overseas....no telling what your getting now....like I said there were coil problems a while back....I have an old Jacobs Electronics ignition coil I keep around as a testing standard whenever I suspect a coil problem it gets swapped in to troubleshoot that area of the ignition.

I have an Ignitor 3 in one of my cars that's been built since 2010 that's running great right now....7200RPM solid flat tappet LT-1 in a 1970 Vette.

I run a 0.035" gap with the conventional coils when feed by a GM resistor wire on positive side of the coil (Ignitor 1 units) with the 0.32ohm coils on a Ignitor 2/3 unit feed with a full 12VDC I use a 0.040" plug gap....works well for me. The Ignitor 1 units can't be feed a full 12VDC and they have no protection built into them if someone mistakenly hooks up the red/black wires wrong so, I tend to only use Ignitor 2/3 units in my builds because they have the reverse polarity protection and can be run with a full 12VDC source.