Pertronix or the end is extremely #@$%ing nigh.

[The Goose]

I’ve had this Jeg’s box sitting in the kitchen since mid November. My brother got it for me as both a birthday present and to drag me into the future. I’d been complaining about needing to buy a new coil for the Fury as my 50 year old unit seemed to be sucking wind. He got me a new coil and a pertronix set up just to stir the pot.

I’ve put it off but I figure I’ll give it a go as he did spend some decent coin on the present. Looks from the instructions I power the the unit pre ballast and the coil stuff post ballast or I can power it off the ignition switch. I tried one back in the early 90’s that burnt up and just stuck with points ever since. That was a long time ago so I don’t remember how it was wired but I did follow the instructions. Figure 2 looks easier.

I’ll report back how it goes...

 

[67Monaco]

If the coil isn't stock, or stock replacement, by-pass the ballast resister.

 

[Big_John]

I’ve had this Jeg’s box sitting in the kitchen since mid November. My brother got it for me as both a birthday present and to drag me into the future. I’d been complaining about needing to buy a new coil for the Fury as my 50 year old unit seemed to be sucking wind. He got me a new coil and a pertronix set up just to stir the pot.

I’ve put it off but I figure I’ll give it a go as he did spend some decent coin on the present. Looks from the instructions I power the the unit pre ballast and the coil stuff post ballast or I can power it off the ignition switch. I tried one back in the early 90’s that burnt up and just stuck with points ever since. That was a long time ago so I don’t remember how it was wired but I did follow the instructions. Figure 2 looks easier.

I’ll report back how it goes...

View attachment 426021

View attachment 426023

If it's the Ignitor II, you'll find it's more robust and protected from burn out from leaving the key on. I have it in my Barracuda and so far, so good.

The Ignitor II can also just bypass the ballast completely. If you want it for looks, you can gut the BR and solder a piece of copper wire in place of the resistor in the back. I did that... But, just don't overthink it. You don't need it, so bypass it however you'd like.

Now comes the guys with the points. I don't have time or desire to debate it tonight, so think of an appropriate, somewhat witty, yet kind of bitingly insulting remark against using points and say it to yourself and pretend it's from me. Thank you.

 

[Big_John]

If the coil isn't stock, or stock replacement, by-pass the ballast resister.

While the Ignitor II can take advantage of a low resistance primary coil, it limits current , like the ballast resistor does, when running, so the stock coil works just fine.

 

[commando1]

If it's the Ignitor II, you'll find it's more robust and protected from burn out from leaving the key on. I have it in my Barracuda and so far, so good.

The Ignitor II can also just bypass the ballast completely. If you want it for looks, you can gut the BR and solder a piece of copper wire in place of the resistor in the back. I did that... But, just don't overthink it. You don't need it, so bypass it however you'd like.

Now comes the guys with the points. I don't have time or desire to debate it tonight, so think of an appropriate, somewhat witty, yet kind of bitingly insulting remark against using points and say it to yourself and pretend it's from me. Thank you.

I like points.
When they are not kissing the firewall.

 

[67Monaco]

While the Ignitor II can take advantage of a low resistance primary coil, it limits current , like the ballast resistor does, when running, so the stock coil works just fine.

That's why I said if the coil isn't stock.

The advice I got from pertronix said since I was running the igniter and flamethrower coil to by-pass the ballast resister.

 

[CBODY67]

When I was trying to run a 440+6 dual point in the '67 Newport 383-4, I never could get the point gap and dwell to align. When I pulled the distributor out and set up a dial indicator to set the point gaps, that's when I discovered the fact that the breaker cam lobes were not all the same height, from wear, visible wear. Which means that if you set the points on one high spot on the cam, the next one might (or would usually not) be the same. Which means a variaton in dwell and potential spark energy to that particular cylinder, from the others.

That's when I got a Mopar Perf electronic ignition conversion kit, back then, and went that direction, using an MSD-5C box to run it.

One other advantage of electronic ignitions is that without the point set's spring tension pushing against the distributor shaft, NO wear on the shaft bushings. I realized that when I checked the side-to-side "play" on our '72 Newport 400 (with factory electronic ignition) after it had about 80K miles on it. Everything was still tight.

One advantage of point ignitions is that they will start a vehicle with a low battery, if a spark happens between the point set's contact surfaces. Whereas even the basic factory box has a low-limit of battery voltage to fire the plugs. Something like 5 volts? End result, which we witnessed one night at a cruise-in event, the engine spins over fast enough to start, but doesn't until a set of jumper cables (attached to another vehicle) is attached to the battery, after which is starts on the first revolution of the starter. The particular vehjicle in question had the Chrysler Orange Box installed.

Back when all we had OEM was points, we didn't worry about wear on the breaker cam lobes, we just shose one jobe and set everything from the one most available. Things worked fine but the annual replacement was just a part of the annual tune-up activities. 12-20K miles, back then, but all point sets had a little vial of breaker cam lube in them and the mechanics knew to use it, after wiping the cam clean of any old lube. By observation, by the middle 1980s, most point sets had deleted those lube vials. Although AC-Delco and Mallory Ignition still sold "life-time supply" TUBES of it, if anybody cared to look.

Both systems, well-maintained, can work well. Depending upon the engine and how the vehicle is used. Your judgment call.

Just some observations,
CBODY67

 

[Turboomni]

If I had to use electronic ignition it would be Pertronix. But carry two sets of them just like points.

 

[The Goose]

If I had to use electronic ignition it would be Pertronix. But carry two sets of them just like points.

I’ll throw my good points distributor in the trunk LoL!

 

[The Goose]

If it's the Ignitor II, you'll find it's more robust and protected from burn out from leaving the key on. I have it in my Barracuda and so far, so good.

The Ignitor II can also just bypass the ballast completely. If you want it for looks, you can gut the BR and solder a piece of copper wire in place of the resistor in the back. I did that... But, just don't overthink it. You don't need it, so bypass it however you'd like.

Now comes the guys with the points. I don't have time or desire to debate it tonight, so think of an appropriate, somewhat witty, yet kind of bitingly insulting remark against using points and say it to yourself and pretend it's from me. Thank you.

From the diagram it looks like you’d keep the ballast and run the unit off the front lug then run the coil off the back lug. If you 100% bypassed the ballast for the pertronix unit why would they want you to use it for the coil? or am I reading the diagram wrong.

Honestly I’d like it to work and not burn up making me an even bigger leave the points alone zealot LoL!!!

This is what he got me.

A pretty nice present.

 

[Big_John]

Here, did a screen shot of the instructions. I think you are reading it wrong.

1. OK, your coil has to be .6 ohms or more and you have that covered. This allows you a wide range of coils to use in the configuration shown including the stock coil. IIRC (and it's late) a stock Mopar coil has around 1.5 ohms primary resistance.

2. There are two ways to hook it up. What you are doing is mixing the two. You can do "A." which they recommend and is shown in Figure 1,

"B" is the alternative and uses the ballast resistor. That is what is shown in Figure 2.

Don't do both... My strong suggestion is to do "A" as shown in Figure 1. This completely bypasses the ballast resistor.

The other way does work.... My car was hooked up that way when I got it, but there's no advantage, no need and adds another component that can fail (the ballast resistor). The way I understand the Pertronix works is to limit the current while running to the coil, just as the ballast resistor does, and makes the BR unnecessary.

I use a Pertronix Flamethrower coil with mine.

BTW, Since my car came with the incorrect "single point" type distributor with a crappy curve, I replaced it with a correct steel dual point that I rebuilt with new bushings and a Pertronix II. The ignition curve in the correct distributor really helped wake the car up with the bonus of correct look. My spare is the old Pertronix equipped distributor! Talk about plug and play...

 

[The Goose]

Okay thanks that clears that up. I’ll eliminate the ballast and run figure 1.

I get a 3 day coming up w New Years so next weekend will be perfect to get dumbo pertronixed and all cleaned up. Now that it’s in the garage I mostly dust er off. I only wash it once or twice a year and then mostly for bugs.

Thanks guys!