Pertronix Flame-Thrower Coil vs Ignition Ballast

[70bigblockdodge]

Wow, all this aggravation to eliminate points in a car you are going to put what maybe 1500 mi a year on, and most likely never going to spin past 4500 rpm. Now at least when the petronix module goes bad you will know right away to call the tow truck and order a new one from Summit/Jegs whatever, because there is no fixing that on the side of the road with a couple of trinkets in the glove box.
Guess that's why I will never get a TV show, no product pimping.
Your car should not be dependent on spinning it over fast enough to generate voltage to make a spark. Go look up Ohm's law.
The coil fires by collapsing a magnetic field over windings. If the circuit opens the field collapses causing a spark. The field is created by amperage(current) flowing through the heavy primary windings in your coil. When this amperage stops the field collapses creating a high voltage, low current energy which jumps across the spark plug gap, BTW not electrically connected to 12volt of car. The voltage of the battery has little to due with creating a spark at the plug.

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

78Brougham. No offense taking friend

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

My ignition kit is a Ignitor 1381A and Flame-Thrower 40001 Coil that Pertronix said that I needed for my car when I originally did away with my points and old coil. When I first installed the conversion kit I had the Ignition Ballast in the circuit and that was incorrect according to there instructions and Pertronix verified the drawing that I sent them showing the Ignition Ballast being taken out of the circuit per there instructions. Now that I know that my battery is good and that my Alternator Regulator is also good. I'm now thinking that my ignition circuit was good all along and that FIELD side of the Alternator is not working since the power for this circuit comes from the FIELD side of the Alternator.

 

[Welder guy]

65SportFuryGuy. Firstly I hope you get your car running soon, these kind of issues can be aggravating and damaging to the wallet. 30 years ago I switched my car over to Ma Mopars electronic ignition ,it took an hour to install and I was back on the road. 450,000 miles later i have never had a single problem with the ignition since. Its a very dependable set up and parts are easily found if needed. Just my opinion. Post some pics and I hope you get her on the road soon.

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

You know I installed this ignition conversion kit in February of 2015 when doing a tune up, oil and oil filter etc etc and have not had the first problem with it until my fuel pump went out in late October of 2017. My son in law changed it while I was out of town. But he installed the fuel pump with the lever over the cam not under it. He said he removed the fuel pump and reinstalled it correctly and started the motor and it ran for a minute or two and quit and has not started since. We are talking late November now. After putting a new conversion kit, Coil, cap and plug wires and wiring the conversion kit the way Pertronix said to and checking the battery and the alternator regulator which both checked good. I'm starting to wonder now that if he tried to installed and uninstalled and reinstalled the fuel pump without disconnecting the battery and moving the alternator out of the way and grounded the alternator thus shorting it out. If the engine will not start then the alternation isn't generating voltage to charge the battery and send voltage to the coil to fire the plugs to start the engine.

 

[65sporty]

If the engine will not start then the alternation isn't generating voltage to charge the battery and send voltage to the coil to fire the plugs to start the engine.

You don't need the alternator for the engine to run. The alternators job is to recharge the battery. Everything runs off of the battery. You need to check power to the ignition system first

 

[tbm3fan]

Just curious since the car won't start have you measured the power available at the coil terminal when starting? I have the Pertronix II in all my cars and have always checked power at the coil to see if it was close to 12V.

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

Today I checked the voltage again of the battery. It still came in at 12.23 volts. Then I turned the lights, Heater fan and ignition switch on and the voltage came in at 11.18 volts.
I'm not sure how to check the voltage being pulled when trying to start the engine with everything on that pulls voltage.
I know to hook the mulitmeter leads to the battery post but what do I set my meter on? Do I set it on 12 volts like I did to check the battery voltage with everything off?
I have checked all my wiring and connections and everything is good. Continuity all the way through.
I have not checked the power to the coil yet.
I have been told that if I disconnect the FIELD wire and the BATTERY wire from my alternator which are the only two terminals that I have and check for continuity between the two and if I have continuity, the alternator is good but if I don't, the alternator is not good. Is the statement true or false? I was told this this morning as I was having my company van serviced and cleaned up at the county vehicle maintenance shop by one of the service guys.
I'm not off again until Friday. At that time I will remove the battery and the alternator and take them and have them checked.

 

[65sporty]

When you get a chance to test again, look for 12v at the positive side of the coil. If you bypassed the resistor it will be a full 12v. Don't leave the key on too long because Pertronix says you can damage the ignitor if it's left on too long. If you have 12v on the positive side take a test light and put it on the negative side, it will light up, have a helper crank the engine, if the ignitor is good it will flash and you should have spark from the coil.

 

[RemCharger]

It sounds like the brown wire is not hooked into the system and therefore not giving it 12v while in the crank position.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Also sounds like fuel pump is the problem.

 

[Ripinator]

Also sounds like fuel pump is the problem.

Yep. I believe the the arm is still not engaging the push rod correctly.

 

[RemCharger]

Hook up brown wire, pour fuel in carb, start engine?

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

Gentlemen, The fuel pump is installed correctly. When the engine is turning over it pumps gas into the carb. Remcharger talked about the hooking up the Brown wire. The Brown wire is not hooked up which is shown on a drawing posted earlier showing the Brown wire running from the IGN2 pin to the Ignition Ballast that isn't hooked up to anything and the Dark Blue wire running from the Alternator Regular to the IGN pin. I have attached a drawing showing a Dark Blue wire running from the + side of the coil to the splice just below the Alternator Regulator

that would be removed then a new Dark Blue running from the + side of the coil to the same pin that the Brown wire goes to IGN2 on the Ignition Ballast. Now both ignition wires are hooked up. IGN and IGN2. Is this what you guys are talking about doing.View attachment 176536

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

Well Guys. I pulled the Alternator and the Battery today. The Alternator check out real good. But the battery is weak only reading 12.2 volts instead of 12.7 volts. Left the Battery at Interstate Batteries for them to charge and monitor it during the charging process. I have removed the wire running from the splice just below the Alternator Regulator to the + side of the coil. I have also by passed the Ignition Ballast completely and ran a new wire from the IGN2 pin on the Ignition Switch to the + side of the coil. Please check out the new attached

drawing showing how everything is hooked up now. Now the IGN2 and the IGN wires are now both back in the circuit. Once the Battery is back in the circuit I'll recheck all the wiring and connections and pour gas in the card and hit the Ignition Switch

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

Okay guys I wired the ignition system like the drawing above completely by passing the Ignition Ballast. I poured gas in the carburetor and hit the switch and it fired right off but only ran as long as there was gas in the carburetor. The see through gas filter shows that I'm getting gas to the carburetor. As long as I pour gas in the carburetor it will run or hold the switch over to start but as soon as I stop pouring in gas or release the switch to run it stops running. So what am I missing here guys. Is the fuel pump still installed incorrectly or is it something else. Such as the Ignition switch maybe?

 

[RemCharger]

You're all good, but according to your picture, the blue IGN is not hooked to the coil +. Do that, then on to your carb woes...

 

[65SportFuryGuy]

Okay. So you're saying to go back and connect the BLUE IGN wire that I showed REMOVED per the THURSDAY at 3:26 PM reply back to the DARK BLUE 16 from the splice just below the Alternator Regulator and reconnect it to the + side of the coil making me have 3 wires hooked to the + side of the coil. They are. RED wire from the Pertronix Ignitor, Dark Brown 14 wire to the IGNITION SWITCH IGN2 and finally the DARK BLUE 16 wire from the splice just below the Alternator Regular.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Yes there are two wires on one side of the ballast resister. One is the bypass straight to the coil providing full battery current and voltage to the coil when you have a heavy load on the battery (cranking). When you release the key it powers the other wire with puts power through the ballast resistor and then to the positive side of coil to keep the points and coil from burning up from excessive amperage. You need ignition 1 and ignition 2 spliced together and run to positive side of the coil. One for start and one for run on the key switch can be together now since you eliminated the need for a ballast resistor. Then fix your fuel pump, it is activated by a rod that pushes down from a cam eccentric. Bump the starter over feeling when the rod returns to base circle. Put a dab of heavy grease on the end of the rod to hold it up in the block till you can get the pump installed. If the pump wants to seat all the way it's probably not on the rod but next to it, the bolts should have to pull pump up the last little bit and seat the gasket.

 

[RemCharger]

I agree. But there is gas to the filter? Maybe pull the line off just to see if it's pumping?