On the way up the the British car show in Ventura, California today with
the Tiger, (which was great, by the way.......Sunbeams were the
"featured marque"..... about 20 Tigers/Alpines and a Sunbeam-Talbot plus
lots of cool, if lesser, other British cars), Jane and I were discussing
how great the Tiger was running with it's new Pertronix Ignitor II
ignition and coil. More power all the way up the power curve, instant
start up hot or cold, much smoother cruising at high speed (I barely
needed to touch the gas pedal to keep it at 75-80 MPH in 5th gear, not
that we would ever exceed legal speed limits). We got into Ventura,
idled a few minutes as they directed cars into the concours area and we
parked and turned off the car. Couldn't be better.
At 10 AM the event organizers asked everyone to start their Tigers so
the rest of the crowd could hear what real cars sound like. Great,
except our Tiger wouldn't start. Turned over but no start up. I checked
to see if any wires had come loose anywhere from my messing about under
the dash the night before and everything seemed OK. I checked to make
sure violtage was going to and from the coil and to the ignition module
in the distributor, which it was. I got lots of help and suggestions of
what to try but nothing worked and no spark was coming from the coil
wire. Out went the Pertonix and the Flamethrower coil and back in went
the points, the old coil and the ballast resistor. Instant start. The
Pertronix had completely failed.
Years ago, in my previous Tiger, I had tried three or four Mallory
Unilite modules (similar idea in that they also fit completely under the
dist. cap) that ended up with the same result, all eventually failing
and Mallory couldn't figure out why.
My theory is that, with the electronics under the distributor cap,
there's just too much heat under a Tiger hood for them to survive. I
don't think the manufacturers realize the heat load in there. I think a
better idea might be an ignition with a seperate box, like an MSD,
external to the distributor, that can be installed in a cooler location.
I'll call Pertronix in the morning and I'm sure they'll send me a
replacement (as they did with the magnet ring which was faulty right out
of the new box) , but I don't want to do this too often.
Has anyone else had this experience with a Pertronix ignition?
Steve Sage
1967 MK1A
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