Barbecued Pertronix and No Start, God laughs at me alot Options

[Brian Mifsud]

Poured in the 3 gallons of premium, hooked up the brand spanking new Die Hard and hit the switch for the first time in 6 years... annoying seat belt buzzer seems to work very well...........


So I hear the fuel pump fire off (good)

Starter Solenoid goes click.................

Try again.............click

turn off ignition and climb out (I COULDN't have wired the starter wrong.. .there's only 2 connections) me says..

Then the wonderful smell of burning bakelite..........

I quickly disconnect positive terminal to battery and bust open the distributor.

I conclude that I roasted my Pertronix having wired it wrong when I had to remove and replace the coil (although my red wire went to positive post on coil, and black wire to negative so what gives???)

Mind you, this was a perfectly running Mike Mueller engine with a perfectly running Pertronix Ignition.. I had to go and mess it up by taking things apart to clean them all up. Last time I used it, the starter was dandy with no problems.


Would I be lucky enough that this has happened to you.. and the only reason the engine DIDN't turn over was lack of voltage 'cause that greedy Pertronix was wired wrong and sucking up all the AMPS??

In other words, is it likely I have MORE than one item wired wrong??

New ignition on the way, but I'm not using it as a fuse agin.... see, this Idiot can learn things..... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (Rouser @ Aug 11 2005, 02:25 PM)

This thread will probably add one notch to the "Pertronix Sux" arguement. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif) Let me explain ... The Ignitor module SHOULD have been intelligent enough to automatically sense that you were accidentally wiring it backwards, and therefore set off your horn, preventing its demise. That capability (I'm sure) is coming in version 3.0. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/dry.gif) Roasting one happens; we won't hold it against you. I was just doing a little rant, that's all. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/smile.gif)

I wouldn't count on that. Mallory Unilite modules will also smoke if you wire them up backwards. I'm not certain, but Crane modules probably won't, but that's part of what you get when you have lots of room in an external module. The Pertronix is sufficiently small that there's just not much room for the componentry to safely shunt reverse polarity power.

It doesn't help at all that VW and Porsche (and perhaps other Germans, I have no idea) insist on using BLACK as the power wire color, when everyone else uses that as ground, so there are two black wires at the coil on any electronic ignition install, and they go to opposite posts on the coil.

Another easy excuse is that points will work if the coil is hooked up backwards (black to - and green to +), but you'll smoke a Pertronix or Unilite very quickly if you hook red to + and black to - on a coil that has been wired up this way by a DAPO. So, disconnect all of the coil wires when installing one of these items, and hook it all up correctly:

black wire from relay board to coil +
red wire from pertronix/mallory/et al to coil +
black wire from pertronix/mallory/etc to coil -
black/purple wire from relay board to coil -