Wow. This is really interesting--these things should be rock solid reliable
by now. I discovered to my chagrin that swapping polarity on a Pertronix
toasts it--unless you buy the "new and improved" one for $40 bucks more.
What does it take to put a blocking diode in a circuit?
The worst problem with these units is that they sometimes don't fail
catastrophically--the engine keeps running, it just starts running lousy. I
bought the MSD box and Pertronix for my new distributor, but I'm having some
second thoughts about installing them.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Joe Boruch
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 9:56 AM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Rev limiter revisited-Pertronix
I had a Pertronix unit fail on me last week in my street TR4. Good thing I
kept the points with me in the glove box and was able to swap them out on
the side of the highway. The Pertronix ran great until then. It only had
about 500 miles on it, and the coil is a 3 ohm coil like what they call for.
I hope the replacement that they send me lasts longer. Joe(B)
-- Bill Babcock <BillB@bnj.com> wrote:
I can testify to the shaft wobble issue. I added the Pertronix to the Lucas
because even brand new ones have some shake in the shaft. I assumed the
electronic pickup would make that less of a problem than points. Mine has no
vacuum advance fitted (I think it's called a 43D, but then again, my memory
sucks) but it still has the vacuum plate--they just rely on a goofy loose
fitting pin to secure the plate--it shakes about ten thou. I soldered the
plate to eliminate that, but I still got scatter from the shaft movement. I
could see it on my Tach, and the engine ran really badly.
I borrowed a Mallory from Tony and the problem disappeared.
I plan to keep the point plate handy in case the Pertronix screws up, but I
think having a decent distributor to start with will with enable the
Pertronix to work the way it should.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Randall Young
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 9:53 PM
To: FOT
Subject: RE: Rev limiter revisited
> Ok folks, I am presently using a Crane (Alison) XR3000 ignition in the
> TR6.
Those things are lousy !
> He says MSD has nothing that would make the 6AL work in the Triumph.
That's not true, but it's likely he didn't know that. All you need to make
the photo pickup you currently have work with the MSD is a Crane XR700 box.
The XR700 uses the same pickup as the XR3000, but the output of the XR700
can be used to trigger the MSD box.
Even triggering the MSD with points worked out quite well for me, much
better IMO than the XR3000. But your dizzy needs to be in good shape, as
any shaft wobble will still show up as spark scatter.
> Now I KNOW I have seen these units in our cars before. Any advice?
> Any of you folks using it?
I've never tried the Pertronix, but conceptually I like the XR700 (as a
trigger for the MSD) better. The Pertronix is better than points, but is
still somewhat sensitive to shaft wobble and I've heard that as little as
.020" TIR wobble can cause misfiring (not to mention making the pickup rub
on the point cam). The Crane should be able to deal with 10 times that much
wobble and still deliver at least some sort of spark.
Randall
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