engine and drivetrain PERTRONIX is a terrible product

[Guest Anonymous]

I havent been on the board in forever, which is a good thing which normally means my 72 has been running well - I'm delighted to see it is still going strong.

But I'm compelled to write this post.

Are you thinking about getting a pertronix? Please don't.

A couple years ago I had a mech adv dizzy with one in it from the PO. Then one day I can get the car to fire up but only stay running for 10 seconds or so and then it conked out. Man, I struggled to diagnose it. evntually I swapped dizzies and it turns out it was the pertronix. But a real pain to diagnose.

Then time passed and I decided to do an ignition upgrade last year with a new pertronix, MSD, red coil, etc, etc. Last fall before put the car away it the ignition would just cut out randomly while driving, then kick back in and whoa whatta backfire! Figured it was the 12v + cutting out but ran bypasses to no avail. Then I started eyeing that pertronix again, put in some points and solved it.

Now I know these are only two datapoints, but for me it is two too many. I'm sure there are tons of 02ers that will respond witih or think of their wonderful pertronix experiences, but I'm here to tell you and place in the archive that if you are having ignition cut-out, ignition problems, missing or something random - eye that pertronix! A points swap takes about 20 minutes, and eliminates a poorly manufactured, weak link gimmick in your engine (IMHO)

Aaron

PS: can you run and MSD/red with points or will I burn those suckers out? or am I not getting the bang out of the MDS/Red with points?

Hope this helps someone!

[ingraham]

(nt)

[punchesdfw]

We run an M20 now. But, we ran a Pertronix for several years with no problems at all.

[Mike_R]

Mine works great. I had mine professionally installed, zero issues in three years.

Why the rant now if you dont frequent the board?

[Guest Anonymous]

i put mine in on my own with no problems for , maybe you don't know what your doing

[HarryPR]

I, however, had two go bad on me before I switched to a Crane XR3000. That was 5+ years ago and the Crane has performed flawlessly.

It is said that Pertronix units get damaged when you leave the ignition switch on without starting the engine.

[Guest Anonymous]

My Petronix went in faster then a light switch. Been good for 6 years. Cranes work OK .. Some ( all?) use photo optical cells which are sensitive to dirt throwing off the optical light trigger. They all beat those things called.........points

Dog M.

1974 2002 L Jetronic efi

1989 325iX "SNOW DAWG"

1991 318is...coming soon

[Guest Anonymous]

I have yet to have a problem with a pertronix unit. I have seen more problems out of the optical units. An MSD will burn up a standard points set. you can try other trigger units but opticals get dirty very easly.

Sam

[jgerry2002]

FYI, you need a resistor with a Red coil and pertronix or you will burn the unit out.

Did you run a resistor with the unit?

Gimmick? I don't think so. Its been around in one form or another for at least 20 years.

Replacing the points with a simple device that uses the hall effect, which is nothing more than a rotating magnet that passes a sensor which fires off the ignition precisely without the wear and tear of a set of points. Its simple and it works.

[cmartin93]

Haven't had any issues with my pertronix. I did have a MSD 6A die on me once, talk about a pain to diagnose. Luckily they fixed it for a small fee.

[dubois]

(nt)

[peteinjp]

Compufire- with waste spark coil. Plugs gap at .05" Uses the stock dizzy curve. Needed a little adaptation for the rotor. 2 years now so far so good!

[SteveJ]

I have heard of others having problems with their Pertronixs systems, but the one that the PO installed in mine has been fault free for the last 4 years and 40k or so that I have owned the car. Then again, my background is in electronics. That said, I ALWAYS carry points and a condenser.

[oz_tom]

(nt)

[Brandon]

I've got pertonix in my '72 tii and it works fine and always has. Are you sure you have the correct one? I believe there are two different part numbers out there that will work with the 02. I think...and I must stress I think.... one goes to the Tii dizzys and the other to the vac advance dizzys. If you have the wrong one in your car that may be the problem. I have heard of others with faulty pertonix though, so maybe you just got one of those faulty ones....tough luck I guess!