Pertronix Distibutor Help

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Jan 9, 2010
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Location
Los Gatos, CA
A friend has a 55 F100 with Chevy 350 base crate engine and 700R4 transmission.
It ran with an HEI, but the HEI had problems and was a tight fit against the firewall.

He bought a Pertronix Bullet Distributor (ready to run) and Flame Thrower external coil.
Installed distributor and wired it to coil. Used 12v from HEI wire to + side of coil.

No spark. Nothing out of coil.
Does anyone have experience with these?

I have a trouble ticket in with Pertronix...
Thanks in advance.
 
Is he using the HEI module? If he had problems before, the module could be the problem.

Get a meter out and see if there is 12 going to the coil.

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I can't help. I had zero luck with Pertronix products. I had one that replaced GM points. It caught on fire one day. Burned my distributer down and the paint off my hood lol
 
Pertronix sent me a troubleshooting guide.
Basically sez you need 10v or better when cranking engine. 14.2v with engine running.
I only checked with key on.

Given this truck has been rewired and may not have sufficient voltage this is my next test.

Thanks to all.
 
Is there a ballast resistor or ballast resistance wire in the ignition system's power delivery circuit?
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
I can't help. I had zero luck with Pertronix products. I had one that replaced GM points. It caught on fire one day. Burned my distributer down and the paint off my hood lol


It's been a long time, but back in the day, I had good luck with Allison or Mallory pointless setups. Pertronix was always rated poorly by those who installed. This is a very simple basic system. Rip out all ignition wiring and start over. And use upgraded battery cables and gear reduction high torque starter.
 
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180* out. Oldest trick in the book.
I'm fired.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Sometimes I gotta laugh at my stupidity.
 
Being out of timing it would still spark though.

Looking briefly at the Pertronix website I see that they have different models for clockwise or counterclockwise rotation, so make sure you have the right one for the application. Though it may fire you're going to have operational issues with the wrong rotation. Also the "simple two wire" setup means that it depends on grounding through the distributor body to the engine block. When you have the clamp loose for adjustment it may not be grounded very well.
 
Originally Posted by mk378
Being out of timing it would still spark though.

I agree, which is what blew me away.
Out of time should kick, sputter, backfire. It did none of those.
Now it's running fine.
 
Being exactly 180 degrees off timing an engine will generally do nothing but crank like it is not sparking at all. Maybe if you completely flood it, it will eventually backfire all the accumulated gas.

But if you do a spark test there will be sparks. Also if you hook up a timing light you'll see cylinder 1 firing on the TDC mark on the crank pulley like it should. But it is firing at the "other" TDC.
 
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Originally Posted by mk378
Also if you hook up a timing light you'll see cylinder 1 firing on the TDC mark on the crank pulley like it should. But it is firing at the "other" TDC.

That's where I was. But the timing light was not firing. I haven't used the light in a long time.
FYI - someone else found the problem earlier this morning; I was not there today.
 
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