PERTRONIX Ignitor Ignition 1940 ford Helmet Dist

[Veeder]

Has anyone had any experience with this product if so I have stock wires (solid core) and they say NOT to use them for RF REASONS will "damage the unit over time"??

Any thoughts would be appreciated
Veeder

[ct1932ford]

Make sure you use the pertronix coil as well. Use recommended wires. Have been running
the module in my crab dist. for years with no issues.

[deuce lover]

He wants to run the helmet dist.According to Michael of Third Gen there are issues.

[35fordtn]

Don't ask me why/how... But in the crab distributors they are ok units as long as you run the right coil and have the proper primary resistance.

On the Earlier 32-41 distributors, Petronix put the timing tab in the wrong location making it hard to get proper timing although you can get them close.. Also they seem more prone to failures in the 32-41's I dont know why.. I will only install them in the later distributors due to this.

For the Early Distributors, points are your best friend and will peform flawlessly

[ct1932ford]

Learn something every day!

[hotrodart]

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The Pertronix techs used to say to not use their Ignitor with a generator.....to much "noise" from the brushes and voltage spikes would blow it out.....maybe they made some electronics changes?......

[richard crow]

if you want a reliable system leave it stock get one of those coil adaptors for a modern coil you will be trouble free when those pertronix fail you have to search for parts. remember the orignal are very reliable & ex to trouble shoot

[Hoop]

VEEDER, didn't you have Skip Haney/G.M. prepare a helmet distributor for you not long ago? Or was that for a different car?

Why did you go for the Pertronix?

(Glad we have Michael's experience to fall back on.)

("Reliable coil adapter" ... that's an oxymoron.)

[Veeder]

Hoop

Excellent memory and you are correct Skip did prepare a distributor for me which I installed seemed to work well but the weather was cool. I'.ve just almost given up on this so I decided to give the solid state approach a shot. I also wasn't going to bother Skip again he does great work and has helped me many times!!

I've not driven the car much all summer due to this issue and just needed to try a fresh approach. One of my thoughts is matching the correct coil to the setting of the points for dwell is key. I don't have the money to buying the machine for setting points on this distributor. I've multiple distributors multiple coils just can't get this issue behind me so going at it like its a fresh start but with some new technoligy to take point setting and dwell, issues off the table.
bob

[Hoop]

Veeder, what exactly are the issues you are having? Have you made any adjustments to the distributor that Skip set up?

[Veeder]

Hoop
When I took the car out about 2 mths ago buzzed around the neighborhood ran well took it on a 8 mile wide resulted in being towed home. THe drivers side points closed. So I really dug into this I have multiple distributor housings both 11A and 68 advances put new points in a few of them rotors heat shrink tubing on the rotor shaft them remotely mounted coil, even messed with different distributors and different point gaps paying particular attention to the drivers side points opening first then followed by pass. Side set. Bottom line when things start to heat up 170ish and the distributor body follows I loose spark.I know these dists now so well I could put one together almost with my eyes closed. I'm declaring a truce with the point system and going solid state and just see what happens And plese anyone reading this Skip Hane is the guy to go to for dists and water pumps I'm just having crappy luck with this and want it to be reliable . If this conversion works I may go at it again with the points just to take on the challenge you know these worked back in the 40s

[JSeery]

A heat induced issue sounds more like a condenser or coil than points.

[Hoop]

Veeder, interesting that you say the driver's side points closed, as in stuck together if that's what you mean. How did you check for that? Helmets are kind of tight when installed.

You've been going after this for a while ... hate to see you quit now. It'd be nice if you could fix it youself.

(Forgot to ask, 6V or 12V? Just to be sure.)

[koates]

And of course the condenser is just as important as any other component. What condenser are you using ? If I were you I would go completely original with points. You dont really need any distributor machine to set it up. Thousands have been repaired by little country garages and home workshops over the last eighty years by setting both contacts at .015" and you are good to go. Be very particular that the contacts face each other nice and square, some bending is sometimes required of the base contact. Set that gap very carefully, near enough is NOT good enough. Electronics will get you into more trouble than you want. I have a 1934 Ford V8 that is 6 volt all stock original coil on top of dist and never misses a beat. Regards, Kevin.

[35fordtn]

Kevins advice is good, but different brand points require vastly different gaps to achieve the same dwell.

Bleeder stay away from petronix on a helmet or you will be broke down and out $200. If you’d like send me your distributor and I’ll check it on the machine and adjust (not rebuild) free of charge. I do these every single day at work.

[Aarongriffey]

I have friend with a ‘35 convertible sedan.
We put the correct ‘35 distributor on it and had some trouble when it got hot.
I then installed a remote coil kit.
Then it wouldn’t restart when it was hot unless we waited a half hour.
So we tried a new remote coil. Was ok for a while but we could never count on it restarting when hot. We ended up changing the coils three times.
The owner sent the original Ford coil to Skip. That was 5 or more years ago.
The old bugger now starts right away, hot or cold ever since.
The story of the moral is: don’t waste your time with NAPA coils. Use a “Skip’s” coil.

[Aarongriffey]

Maybe more than 10 years ago I was working for a car collector that was driving his completely stock ‘32 V8 roadster to a car show in San Jose from Oakland.
Just as they got into San Jose(maybe 30 miles) the car started running crappy.
They parked it and took a cab the rest of the way.
After the show I drove them to the car and it started right away, ran fine and we headed back to Oakland.
After a few miles of driving on side roads it died. It was a hot day, we had lots of water. We poured water on the coil and it started n ran fine another couple of miles.
We had to pour water on the coil about five more times to get it back to Oakland.
Buy a new condenser, send your coil to Skip and drive that bugger

[35fordtn]

Originally Posted by Aarongriffey

I have friend with a ‘35 convertible sedan.
We put the correct ‘35 distributor on it and had some trouble when it got hot.
I then installed a remote coil kit.
Then it wouldn’t restart when it was hot unless we waited a half hour.
So we tried a new remote coil. Was ok for a while but we could never count on it restarting when hot. We ended up changing the coils three times.
The owner sent the original Ford coil to Skip. That was 5 or more years ago.
The old bugger now starts right away, hot or cold ever since.
The story of the moral is: don’t waste your time with NAPA coils. Use a “Skip’s” coil.

Sounds like you guys were using the wrong coil and had incorrect primary resistance. I am a fan of skips coils and that’s all I run, but a modern coil can run well also assuming you set it up with the correct primary resistance. My guess is you guys were running a 1.5 ohm modern coil as that’s about all you’ll find in 6 volt. If you were then you would have needed to bypass the ignition resistor

[Veeder]

Thank you for all the feedback. I'm still going to try the petronix out of pure frustration for if any reason I'll get a new coil which has .6 ohm primary windings. I may take 35fordtn up on his offer but will pay him. As I stated earlier and do want to be clear The products I've gotten from Skip Haney have always been excellent. I have the one off the car and may send of to TN if anything for an experts ooinion. We will see until then I'm admiring 4 dist housings on my bench two with 11A advances and two with 68 advances you have to love it

[Veeder]

Bypass ignition was bypassed multiple times. My ignition resistors I have are all about .6 ohms so that coupled with a coil of say 1.5 ohms drops the current down to about 3 amps (not good) however I have a collection of helmet coils primary side approx.6 ohms secondary 6k. Non of them work. This is just craziness thank god I'm not working on any thing complex it would likly be desasters. Oh one last thing I've bypassed the ignition switch multiple times.