pertronix woes!

[soul]

so i have no idea what is going on! i installed everything as according to the instructions and i'm still getting no spark. i thought that i might have installed the magnet wrong onto the shaft so i tried repositioning it. and it seems that there are actully 4 positions that it fits into. so i tried that 4 times without ever getting one fire. i also re checked the gap and it was spot on. the PO installed an msd 6a, does this pose a problem. also, where does the wire that connects onto the points go to? this one

also, does this look right?

please help guys, this is my daily and i'm starting to get really frustrated.

[TJs692002]

I once tried to get teh pertronix up and going and I also never figured out what to do with the wire that used to go to the points. I was able to get my car started but cranking power was very slow. Once the car ran she ran great. And also when running if I touched that wire not connected to the pionts anymore I would get a 12v zap. So the original poits went back on, the pertronix went back in teh box an it has been sitting on my workbench eversince. Hopefully someone here will educate both of us.

[soul]

i hope so! i also put my points back in for the mean time.

[mixamson]

but if I were you I would consider returning the Pertronix and going with a Crane unit (either the 700 or 3000). I had been advised to convert to Pertronix but had terrible luck with their product -- which is unfortunately precisely what I had been told I would encounter.

I now have a Crane XR700 unit with a Bosch red coil and I will say that it made a giant difference in the overall drivability of the car.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

-Mike Sampson

[Zenon]

...the PO installed an msd 6a, does this pose a problem. also, where does the wire that connects onto the points go to? this one

...

...

please help guys, this is my daily and i'm starting to get really frustrated.

The problem ain't the Pertronix. You are following the wrong instructions.

Going by your pics, if you also have an MSD installed then there is no way the Pertronix can work like that. The MSD box feeds the coil with ~300V pulses so that is no longer where you connect the Pertronix (hopefully the Pertronix has not been fried since the MSD should not have been triggered).

In the MSD setup, the black wire of the Pertronix has to connect to the points trigger input of the MSD box, while the red wire goes direct to ignition switched +12V (any solid green wire on all 2002s).

Pertronix has a very different wiring diagram for using the Pertronix with an MSD as opposed to standard ignition. Links to their diagrams are here:

http://www.pertronix.com/tech_support/troubleshooting.htm#line6

Good luck.

regards,

Zenon

[slash02]

also, does this look right?

please help guys, this is my daily and i'm starting to get really frustrated.

That red wire to the pertronix does *NOT* go to the plus side of the coil. it goes to an ignition switched +12v that is on when the car is cranking (apparently 02s have a green wire in the engine bay that provides this. my 76 does).

Here's how mine was wired. Pertronix black wire to that wire you just unplugged from the points (it goes to the tach and the - side of the coil)

That should do it.

[slash02]

I once tried to get teh pertronix up and going and I also never figured out what to do with the wire that used to go to the points. I was able to get my car started but cranking power was very slow. Once the car ran she ran great. And also when running if I touched that wire not connected to the pionts anymore I would get a 12v zap. So the original poits went back on, the pertronix went back in teh box an it has been sitting on my workbench eversince. Hopefully someone here will educate both of us.

What you are feeling when you touch the wire not connected to the points anymore is actually a 150-200v or so "spike".

Have a look here,

In the picture I included, the horizontal voltage line in the centre of the waveform (from just after the big spike to the "1" voltage of approximately 40 volts... The length of the line is the 'Spark Burn Time', in this case, around 1ms. Its actually affected by your dwell time.

There is no current in the coils primary's circuit until the dwell period, when the coil is earthed (points closed) and the voltage seen is dropped to zero volts.(-3, -2, -1 on the diagram) The dwell period is controlled by the gap in the points... It is also referred to as dwell angle. I think that is misleading and it should be expressed as a dwell period

Anyway.

When the dwell period has subsided the ground is released from the coil

and you get ignition. baiscally the spike, and then everything on the right of it.

The high vertical line is over 200 volts, this is that "spark" you see in the points. (or feel) Its a backflow of EMF from your coil secondary firing.

Hope that helps. Its my best interpertation of what I already know, a bit of what i've read and a nice bootlegged diagram.

Anyway, it can be confusing becuase the low voltage side of the coil does generate a "spike" of high voltage. Learning what these waveforms look like and putting a scope to them can be extremely handy when troubleshooting ignition.

Your "seconday" circuit is the high voltage one that fires the plugs. it usually looks alot like the primary, however it is usually measured in kV (thousands of volts).

Having cool engine diagnostic stuff comes in handy, I have a unit that can show those waveforms, and store them. It helps in tuning, you can set an optimum dwell period (if you're not worried about burning points) In order to get the highest voltage off your secondary circuit.