Intermittant spark, Could this be my pertronix? Options

[zehrschnell914]

After all of the problems (all electrical) I've had with this car, it died on me again. Turned over and all other electrical worked (including fuel pump), but wouldn't start. Guessed no spark and had it towed home.

Next day I pulled the coil wire to check it and it had great spark. I turned the key and it fired right up. I let it run for 10 minutes then backed it out of the garage and it died again. Pulled the coil wire off and had the lovely wife (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) crank it over again and got nothing! All of the ignition components are new and I have installed a Pertronix kit. I looked for the points that came with the dizzy, but couldn't find them. Any ideas?

Mike

[KitCarlson]

Check the ground braid in the distributor.

Use an ohm meter and check for near zero ohms between the plate where the Pertonix is mounted and an engine ground. When the ignition is dead.

The braid grounds the points or pertronix to the case. Without a good ground the ignition might be intermittent. The plate moves on a ball bearing with vac advance, no a good connection without a braid. The Pertonix can also be damaged with loss of ground. I found this when testing the ignition in a drill press, lost a ground, the Pertronics poofed. I can explain why, but that is a long story.

If the braid is broken or missing it can be replaced by soldering in some fine copper solder wick.

The addition of a distributor ground wire from the case to a nearby engine tin screw grounds the distributor when timing is adjusted. The distributor seal can isolate the distributor when the distributor clamp is loose. The ground has to go up the shaft and through the bearings, not very good. The ignition requires several amps to charge the coil, and it needs to do it quickly.

Also check the gap at the Pertronix to magnet, use a plastic 0.01" feeler.

Sometimes the rotor bottom must be shortened to allow for the space consumed by the magnet assembly. If not the rotor over extends and damages the carbon button in the distributor cap. I have also found that the rotor base can bump the top of the Pertronix and spread the gap. Look for wear signs on both parts. It is sometimes elusive, since the plate movement changes spacing.

Kit