What's wrong with this picture?

Still having trouble with my new pertronix ingniton. I'm not getting any spark. This is my second unit. First one burned up literally within the first couple of seconds of cranking.

Multimeter reads 11.39 Volts from the hot wire (ignition switch at the negative side of the coil). It reads 11.21 Volts when hot at the positive side of coil.
Plugs are new. plug wires connected and verified. Rotor pointing to plug wire #1 cylinder when the piston is top dead center on compression stroke as verified multiple times by visual inspection and feeler through plug hole.

Engine fired right up 2 weeks ago with same carb, plugs, wires, coil. Points were pulled in favor of pertronix kit, engine does not fire at all.:?

distributor is engaged as the rotor spins during cranking. Cap and rotor are brand new and appear to be the correct type.

Any one see any problems with the set up?

 

As long as you are not getting more than 12 volts, hooked up correctly, unit is grounding, and the pick-up is on the distributor shaft, you should be all set. I have installed one on the 360 in my 7 about 5 years ago, still running strong. Also installed one in my Corvair which sees a sigificant amount of heat, very pleased. You may have gotten a bad batch of P-units. The first one I installed in my Corvair was bad out of the box. I have also had 24 volts going through mine due to a bad alternator and it is still working great. My only suggestion is to run the power/positive directly to the battery instead of the coil.

 

I'm with Glenn on that. Don't know about pertronix stuff but do know that coil is designed to have ignition going to positive side of coil and the load, whatever it is (points, electronics, etc) to the negative. Could this be your prob.?

 

The power from ignition switch hooks to + terminal of coil. Red lead of ignitor connect to ignition 12 volt source (before ballast not after). Black lead of ignitor connects to - terminal of coil. The last one I installed (on 4cyl tractor) had to reset timing was way off with ignitor unit but once set has run very well. If jpeg made it it should show basic wiring of unit.

 

That’s your problem right there. The only wire that should be connected to the negative post on your coil is the black wire from the Pertronix unit (other than maybe a Tachometer line).
Move your switched +12VDC line to “+” of your coil and you should be fine, though I’d be surprised if you didn’t blow a fuse. You basically just put +12VDC to ground when you turned the ignition switch on.

 

Nevermind. Thinking on this, and using a Pertronix Ignitor for an SBC that’s been sitting on my work bench until I get it on EBay, I found that until energized it reads an open from the black wire to chassis ground. So you probably didn’t hurt anything since your switched +12VDC didn’t make contact with ground.

 

Mebbe, that's the problem. I'll switch the ignition hot wire to the positive terminal tonight and see what happens.

Sometimes you just gotta have someone else to eyeball it.
The diagram clearly shows it.

Thanks for the help guys. I am embarrassed though!

 

No worry! I'm sure we all have at least one story to match yours! I know I do!

 

X2 I have done worse...

 

Update:

Testing of the 2nd pertronix ignitor shows that it has failed. The first one failed as well, but failed more dramatically by literally burning up.

The cause. A bad Pertronix flamethrower coil.

I bought the coil new 6 months ago. while waiting for my engine to be finished rebuild. The coil only has about 2 hours idling time in the shop!

New coil has been purchased and installed, waiting for the new pertronix ignitor to arrive.

 

Yep!

Chuck,

I've been told that before!

I have had some good luck in my life though. Met an incredible lady and she married me 14 years ago now. I still can't figure why she done it though!R)

If I can just get this dang Jeep to run I'll be sitting pretty good. If I can't get it fixed this time I'll be hosting a mechanic convention with free beer in my garage! See if I can get any takers.

 

Where do I get this Petronix?

 

I knew you could solve this problem, good work. Get it on the road!

 

Ah, wish you’d have mentioned it. I have a spare Pertronix Flame Thrower coil in my garage I’d have sold you cheap, used once for trouble shooting only.

 

Update:

New Coil and new pertronix ignitor installed. Hit the ignition and..... started right up. Set the timing, adjusted carb a little. Finally, running! But... now after warm up there is a bit of a knock in the engine! I'll have to take it in to the machine shop where they rebuilt the engine. If it aint one thing it's another!