Is there anyway to bench test a pertronix without an osciliscope? I took my distributor cap cover off and now the car wont run on both banks. I think I might have damaged on of those cheap pertronix wires where it comes out of the dizzy but not sure. I really don't want to replace the whole thing.
Sure. PUll the distributor out of the engine after carefully marking the alignment of everything. It should close the circuit as your rotor approaches a post spot on the cap. So run a piece of 1/2" blue masking tape around the outside of the dizzy with the cap off. Put the cap back on and make centered alignment marks for all the posts of the cap. Then take the cap back off and follow the kit's instructions about using a 9V battery and VOM. That works just fine. I think you can probably download it from their website if you don't have it.
Thanks, I did not find anything on pertronix website but I found this from Britishcarforum.com and will give it a try. First: 1. Physically inspect a. Burning or shrinking or crack of unit, plastic or label b. Wires in good shape, not damaged, cracked or broken 2. Bench Test a. Need Voltmeter, 12 volt battery, jumper wire b. Connect jumper wire from (-) side of battery to aluminum plate on ignitor c. Red wire of Voltmeter (VM) to (+) side of battery d. Red wire of ignitor to (+) side of battery e. Black wire of ignitor to black wire of VM. f. Set meter on 20v DC scale g. Turn distributor shaft. If it is good, it will fluctuate between 12v and 0.
Update, It would not work with a 9v but did work with 12v. So I'm wondering if that was not the problem, why did my car suddenly only work on 1 bank?
I gently removed the dizzy containing my 2 Pertronix units while doing a valve adjust. When I put it back together one of the pick-ups was dead. There is no chance anything was improperly handled or abused, at least in this instance. I got a replacement pick-up and everything has been fine. Makes me nervous. I've been using Pertronix for years on British junk and never had a problem. Tom
Thanks, I put it all back together and same result, one bank down. I also noticed my tach is dead so I think I know which bank is down right? The one the tach is connected to?
Update. I swapped coils to see if it was the coil and now they both work. I'm going to replace the pertronix unit. I just don't trust it.
I suspect you're doing something you don't realize and rectified it while doing the swap. Pertronix do not like low voltage but I was always able to test mine using a 9V battery. It's also how we aligned the the second pickup to the first while it was on the Sun machine. That was 5 years ago. But mine is a single distributor which used to have 4 sets of points in it! That I don't miss. I gather that you're using a single distributor to generate the trigger for both coils but on a single advance mechanism with the second distributor simply routing the high voltage to the other plugs?
That is correct. I am still having problems. Rpm bouncing all over and rough running. I am going to check the inlut voltage tonight
I remember when I did my conversion, Pertronix didn't have a kit for ti so I had to take a Dino kit and add a second (VW bug) sensor to a plate and make it's position adjustable relative to the first. While doing this I also had to ensure that the rotor's width was in the proper position throughout the advance curve so that the spark could be properly transferred to the distributor's posts. I had converted to a different style rotor which had a nice width and made this relatively easy. But I do remeber tesing all of this out quite carefully on the bench. You're performing that in two different distributors so even though this may be spot on in the one that has both sensors in it is it possible the other one is not in proper alignment and is drifting out of a functioning range?
You can also take other production car ignition triggers and retrofit them. We have done this in the past on US V8s.
I think the tach wire is the brown one if I remember. Now that this has been posted though I might pull mine apart to test it. I had issues when I installed mine and then ran into fuel issues once I thought I had the Pertronix sorted. Maybe it was both. But I still need to re-synch the carbs after pulling the linkage all apart.
I replaced all plugs. Rear bank was completely sooted. Front bank looked a little wet but looked like they were running. So I know the rear bank was down for a while. I just restarted and she ran ok. I will try to time tonight. I replaced the caps/rotors and wires from SP UK. The solid copper lead wires are giving my modern timing light fits. My 30= year old light works like a charm but does not have an advance dial I will make a timing light extension lead with the old cavis wire for #1 cylinder tonight and see if I can get my modern light to work.
