Hello....I have been chasing an electrical problem and have done a few goofy moves with the ignition wires...mostly on the relay board...I have pretty much solved the initial problems but now have no spark at all......did I maybe fry my Pertronix 2 module? Please tell me how to diagnose and your experience aka horror stories....thank you very much!
gg

Did you get the wires backward on the coil? If so, your Pertronix is probably dead.

I believe I inadvertently pushed the 12 pin plug by the relays on the relay board incorrectly and caused some damage....the wire on the negative side of the coil melted pretty good but not the one from the Pertronix....refitting the plug correctly has solved the dead short but no spark whatsoever....oops! Anyway do tell??
gg

When I fried my Pertronix, a circular dip melted into it and pink smoke poured out of the distributor. Truly horrible smell. Just the worst electronic burn smell. Still get a scent if I pop my dizzy cap off.

Replacement took all of 30 seconds though.

Have you got en extra coil laying around?

Let's not go guessing at coils, If coil wasn't the problem before it isn't the problem now.

A coil doesn't care about polarity and will not be damaged by putting 12v on the negative side when there was already a ground on the negative side. It will short external wiring but will not harm the coil.


Similarly, the coil can be tested for acceptable resistance. Primary resistance should be 3.0 - 3.2 ohms measured from coil positive terminal to coil negative terminal.

By it's very nature the coil (really a trasformer) has the primary side of the coil isolated from the secondary side. So we don't need to question the secondary side of the coil.

We do know there was 12v applied to the negative side of the Pertronix. Let's see what others chime in with on Pertronix. Doesn't sound encouraging so far. At worst, replace the Pertronix or substitute points for short term trouble shooting.

One other way to test the coil is to have 12v to the positive side of the coil. Put a wire test lead on negative side of coil. Have an assistant, or use your other hand and hold the coil high tension wire 1-2mm from engine ground. Note: preferably hold coil wire with leather gloves and/or insulated pliers. Now quickly tap the negative test lead to ground - pretty fast like 4-5 times a second. You should get a spark out of the coil jumping from the high tension wire to the engine.

There is no need to for a coil to be swapped. Test, verify, move on.

I suggest it since it is easy.

@emerygt350 @second wind
I know, and please believe me when I say I'm not trying to be a jerk to you or anyone else.

Just trying to share that there are more logical methods to do troubleshooting than guess work and parts swapping.

My intent is not to target you or anyone else on the forum but to reinforce that all the parts swapping really isn't the way to troubleshoot. In some instances it is warranted and may be the last resort. Example: I looked online at the Pertronix website for Second Wind and I can't find any internal circuit diagram for a Pertronix, no mention of whether the device is reverse polarity protected, or any way to test it other than to verify that if it has power and ground, it should work.

Even worse, Pertronix own website states not to leave the key on without the engine running for an extended period of time (no reference to what that time is) or it could destroy itself. No mention of how to troubleshoot a Pertronix to determine if this self destruction has happened.

So in my humble opinion Pertronix is I say that knowing a lot of guys here love them and I do understand what a pain points can be and how great electronic ignition can be. But to say Pertronix product and their documentation are lacking is an understatement. I think others have also found that the Pertronix III doesn't play well with D-jet despite no documentation on the Pertronix site about this limitation.

So in this case, parts swapping a Pertronix may be the only recourse - assuming that Second Wind doesn't want to install points.

At it's worst, parts swapping would mean that we would all need a known, good, spare of everything on hand to troubleshoot and this simply isn't true or the easiest approach.

I'll get off the soapbox now

@Superhawk996
Pertronix is awful with customer information. I ordered an Ignitor III only to read on another forum that a person was "told" by Pertronix that the III will not work with fuel injected vehicles. When I called them myself, they confirmed the same. Yet it's nowhere on their site or in the literature.

On that note, I read on that same forum that the Ignitor I or II is not reverse polarity protected, but that III is... and yet again, nowhere in Pertronix literature is that stated.

All that said, I think the parts swap that does make sense here is to take the Pertronix out and put the points back in. If the pertronix was exposed to reverse polarity, it's more than likely dead.

Yes, I understand, but most people that work on cars have coils laying around. If you have 12v and you try a different coil and no go, that really leaves the pertronix (which you can't test apparently). I would hate to replace an expensive and complicated part before I checked the cheap and likely available part. Nobody wants to pull and replace points, you don't even need to pull the coil to try a different one. If it were more than a 5 minute test I might reconsider.

@emerygt350

You need to submit this one over to the "You might own a 914 if . . . " thread.

And like you . . . I have multiple coils lying around.