Pertronix Ignitor trouble.

[skin_dog]

Hey guys and gals, and welcome home to all those who made the trip to Nats...

I finally got around to installing my ignitor kit and after getting it all back together the car won't start. It tries to kick over and almost sounds like it's going to but never actually gets there.
So i have a few questions....
After reading other threads about these kits i noticed that the magnetic collar as given some people dramas. I managed to get mine one without any trouble (so it seems anyway, the rotor button and cap went on fine?) but the collar is not sitting down beside the bracket that the manufacturer recommends grinding away for clearance, it is sitting on top of this bracket, see next pic...


Also, after i removed the rotor and points i noticed a very frayed wire inside the dizzy, the one towards the bottom left of this next pic...


Third but probably not final question, do GT40 ignition coils have a "right way up"? Meaning does the end with all the connections have to be facing down or does it not matter?

Cheers,
Ryan

[hawk]

Ryan ,i have installed a few of these ,the main problem is the magnetic ring not seating down far enough.It should be level with the top of the module.I have never needed to modify anything other than the metal bracket so as to give the magnetic ring the clearance it needs so it does not hit it,as in the diagram above.As long as you have statically timed the engine it should fire straight away,hope this helps.
Regards,Greg.

[skin_dog]

That does help, Greg, cheers. I've been back out in the shed with the dremel and took that bracket back enough for the magnetic collar to sit properly. However i'm not sure what you mean by "statically timed"? Could you elaborate?
Thanks mate,
Ryan

[hawk]

What you need to do is take out no 1 spark plug,rotate the engine by turning fan while holding your finger over the plug hole.You will feel air coming out of the hole ,what you then need to look for is the ball in the flywheel lining up with the pointer. If you have done this correctly the rotor button will be under no 1 position on the dissy cap ,that is static timing,if you have done it right the car should start then you can check with timing light.

[skin_dog]

Ok, after spending most of the day out in the shed my car WAS, but again is now not going.

Here's what happened after i recklessly just pulled the dizzy out without knowing about lining up things to put it back in.....

Once we got the dizzy back on and in the correct position with all marks lining up the ignitor kit still wasn't working. So pulled the dizzy back out, pulled the ignitor kit off and put it back to standard points.
It was then that i noticed the little pin that goes through the vacuum push rod wasn't sitting all the way down into the baseplate. So i fixed that then I put the dizzy back on with standard points setup and it worked.
This got me thinking that that little pin could have been the problem with the ignitor kit so i pulled the dizzy back off again, put the ignitor kit back in, and put the dizzy back on. Nothing, shyte. Ok, getting fed up decided to just put it back to normal- AGAIN- and give up on the ignitor. Got everything put back to standard and now it doesn't start, just backfires like crazy. Damn.
What to do now?
Tried dozens of different points gaps and advance/retard of the dizzy and got nothing but shotgun blasts from the exhaust.
Help me please?!!!

[fbvan]

Sounds like you have the distributor in the wrong position. It is easy to do this when removing and reinstalling if you are not careful. Remove it again turn the rotor through 180 degrees and put it back in.
I would stick with the Petronix if I were you. A much better alternative to the original points.

Regards


Brian

[skin_dog]

Thanks Brian but i'm sure its in the right position, i thought that could have been the problem so i pulled the dizzy off and on about three or four times and each time had all marks lining up perfectly. And not just lining up BEFORE i pushed it down but when it was fully seated.
Could it be something as simple as being flooded? or could the vacuum advance unit be stuffed or set wrong? would that cause it not to run?
Oh and also i checked for spark at the points and at the spark plugs and have spark at both....

Cheers

[RobinGi]

have you checked the firing order ?
Should be 153624 in a clockwise direction (info extracted from another post)
backfiring is usually a sign of timing problems not flooding
when you pull the spark plug out did it look wet, that would be more of an indication that its flooded

[Trev]

A simple thing but is it wired up properly?

[skin_dog]

Thanks mate, but it's definitely not the firing order, i know this because i didn't remove the leads from the dizzy cap and at the spark plug end i was a little over-careful and tagged each one
I'll check the plugs for wetness, cheers...

[skin_dog]

Wire from ignition to the positive of the coil and then from the negative of the coil to the dizzy/points.
Correct?

[Trev]

Do you have spark with the pertronix fitted?

[skin_dog]

I didn't check to be honest, silly in hindsight.
I just pulled my dizzy apart cos the shaft kept grabbing on something- only lightly, you could easily turn through the grabbing by hand- but still grabbing none the less.
As i put each piece back on i'd spin the shaft to see who was the culprit and there was no grabbing the whole way through re-assembly. Put the final little nut back on and presto- grabbing again. Makes no sense to me.
I also checked timing and No. 1 compression position and all that, all seems fine. I even put new spark plugs in.
And nothing has changed.
Could it be this light grabbing of shaft?
Running out of ideas- actually i am out of ideas. Again.

[hawk]

The grabbing may be the screws for the condensor ,if you took it off when fitting the pertronix and put the screws back in the housing they will grab on the baseplate. I agree with Fbvan, stick with the pertronix.
Also you said the wire on vac advance was broken this could be earthing out on the magnetic ring .
Regards, Greg.

[skin_dog]

Ok, after seeing your post hawk, i thought about it and realised i hadn't put the washers on the screws that mount the condenser which would obviously cause them to screw deeper into the dizzy body and, as you said, cause the grabbing. With renewed hope i shot back out into the garage and pulled the condenser off, sure enough, no grabbing. With that solved and a near flat battery after all the previous stuffing around i knew i didn't have many attempts left before a completely flat battery.
I decided to take the advice of hawk and Trev and put the ignitor kit back in, once that was installed again i started really paying close attention to the lining up of the rotor and the dizzy mark and turning the oil pickup slot this way and that way a poofteenth each time. It seemed that there was two different positions that the dizzy could sit and still have the rotor and mark lined up- one really advanced and one really retarded.
I figured i'd get one attempt before total power drain and went for the advanced seating.
Hooked it all up and with a couple pumps of the pedal she roared to life, wooooo!!!!!!!!!! And the help and knowledge of the forum members prevails again!!!

Now, although it does run and drive (just went around the block to get some charge back into it), even with the dizzy totally advanced it still idles really slow and is close to cutting out, and there is a VERY noticeable lack of power. I sort of have to juggle the choke and go-pedal when pulling up to a stop to keep it going.
So, thanks so much guys for all the help and suggestions, but i'm not outta the woods yet.....