Bill,
It is quick and easy and definitely helps an old distributor! Only problem I
ran into was that my rotor would not go down all the way over the Petronix
"magnet ring" so I filed and sandpapered the bottom of the rotor until it went
all the way down. I did this on my '59 Hillman Minx with the Rootes 1494cc
engine. Problem then was setting the timing as you could not longer use a
lightbulb to determine when the "points" just opened. I used a vacuum gauge,
tach/dwell meter and an electronic timing light that allowed me to dial in the
advance (Sears sells these for about $70). I then used my manual to set the
timing at a given RPM and vacuum amount- I spent over an hour setting teh
timing until I was sure I was right on spec. This resulted in vast improvement
in performance. Remembering that a Hillman only has 56 HP, there is one very
long and steep hill on Interstate 78 near me that I was able to climb at 70 MPH
(never managed to do better then 50 MPH at the top before). !
!
You can also play with the static/mechanical/vacuum advance relationship with
the vernier adjuster. I set it at the first mark so that I could get maximum
vacuum advance at higher engine speeds.
However, you also need a good coil and it does not seem to work well with a
system that has a balast resistor (I believe that Series V use them). I tried
a second Pertronix unit on my Plymouth Cricket which has a balast resistor and
the engine ran very poorly. I removed the Pertronix and it went back to
running very well. I plan to replace the balast resisitor setup on the Cricket
with a standard 12 volt coil and see how that works. With a high performance
coil there should be even greater gains.
Jan
bmounce@impop.bellatlantic.net wrote:
> Does anyone have any comments on the Petronix conversion they can sharewith
>me, specifically about satisfaction? Are there alternate
manufactureres for this type product? Thx, Bill
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