Encounter my first issue today. I was finishing the AC and heat install and was topping up rad so had to run the engine to burp the air out.
It was tough starting in but it hasn't been fired in a number of weeks so I thought nothing of it. Got it running eventually by closing choke plate manually. (Electric choke linkage jamming... An issue for another day )
Any way it ran dandy and I was warming it up, waiting for thermostat to open. In the mean time I was adjusting the throttle cable that was a bit tight. The car was at about 160 degrees and thermostat just about to open when I heard a bit of a pop out the back. It sounded like the muted backfire, almost the tone of a piece of aluminum popping. The car stumbled but it recovered.
30 seconds later, same sound and car just quit. Tried to restart... No way no how. Turns over but no fire.
It's getting fuel. I can see the carb squirting. No probs there. I'm thinking it might be the coil failed? I thought this mainly because it was so sudden and I think that noise or pop was a kind of a back fire, but hard to tell in garage as it's noisey.
As an initial test, I tried arcing with a plug wire to ground to see if any spark while cranking engine, but no spark there.
Next I disconnected coil wires. Tested for primary resistance across terminals. Was 0.7 ohms ok I suppose as it is a 0.6 model.
Next tested secondary resistance from + post to HV post. Supposed to be 9000 ohm, tested at 8300. Not sure if this is ok.... Possibly a fail here.
Re connected all. With Ignition turned on I used test lamp to see that there is ignition power at + post on coil. Good here.
Next used the test lamp across the positive and negative terminals while cranking. No light. I'd have thought it would come on and then flash as rotor turned. Nothing. Is this a fail? Or can something else cause this test to fail.
Nothing looks wrong inside distributor cap, All wires look connected... Nothing loose, Rotor turns when cranking... Car was running fine then quits???
An issue or cause may be that I'm pretty sure this is an oil filled canister coil, pertronix 45011 coil and it is mounted sideways at back of engine in a bracket attached to manifold. This may be bad for oil filled canister. If it is the coil I think this may be the cause... Or am I wrong here?
Help? Did I miss something? What else can I test?
Nick Sebastian - 33 Hot Rod #495
Factory Five Forums - hdnik
FFCars - lowntubd
In the past I've had coils that worked fine when cold but were intermittent when they warmed up.
It's easy enough to swap out the coil for something that works on another engine. That should
tell you if you need a new one.
In my case my race car would go like stink for about two laps and then start getting a higher RPM
misfire. Unfortunately for me on a race weekend, the coil was the LAST thing I changed!
Nick did you conquer this? what happened? Its always the small wires that create the problems....
so replace the oil filled coil with a MSD e-core. It was a bust. We have 12v at ignition and cranking, grounds A1, but no spark from coil itself. Tested line up to pick up and power is getting to distributor but no signal seems to be getting back to coil to fire high power.
Called the engine build and have agreed with the pick up or the distributor itself. He is shipping me a new MSD distributor to replace this Powerfire.
That at ought to do it. Will let you know!
Nick Sebastian - 33 Hot Rod #495
Factory Five Forums - hdnik
FFCars - lowntubd
I wanted to continue on this thread with similar issue. I have carb and MSD without the box and an oil filled coil. Simple orange wire connection. Purple tach wire goes to MSD dist not the coil. Has run well. Now when I release the key from start it shuts down. With voltmeter on coil I noticed volts drop below 10V when I release the key and car stalls. Tomorrow I'll hot wire and see what happens. So we don't have a schematic provided of this fuse block, only a faux wiring diagram. Is there something I'm missing with blue wire to orange wire transition on start?
Definitely getting a voltage drop on initial fire and release from start. Bad ignition switch?
No Dale, I did not put a ballast resistor in the harness.
Well it's been a while but my issue was cause by the distributor itself. Having changed the coil and wire with no luck and testing everything else in the fact remained I was getting no spark at the plugs.
i sent a note to the engine builder and he sent me a MSD distributor. Easy to replace. Pressed the go button and all systems go.
Lesson learned. Protronix No Bueno!
Nick Sebastian - 33 Hot Rod #495
Factory Five Forums - hdnik
FFCars - lowntubd
I have had a Pertronix fail in about 20 minutes of run time. On another car, a TR6, I found the pickup mount hole had to be filed so the air gap was within .015" or it would break up when revs exceeded about 2400 RPM. There was also a problem with the plate in the distributor floating around that had to be corrected. That one still runs great a year later.
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Originally Posted by erlihemi
