<VV> Ignitor Installation

[Dave Keillor]

I agree with Seth with one small extra consideration.  The voltage from the
coil terminal will be somewhat "dirtier" in terms of having a fair amount of
noise in it as a result of the switching transients going on in the coil.
Noise spikes, if large enough, can kill electronic circuits.  Therefore,
were I to install a Pertronix, I'd supply it from a "cleaner" 12 volt source
just to be safer.

Dave Keillor

-----Original Message-----
From: Sethracer@aol.com [mailto:Sethracer@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 10:04 AM
To: pkw@peachgrove.com; virtualvairs@corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Ignitor Installation


The  author insists that the red wire go to a separate +12V source rather
than  to the plus terminal of the coil.  What say you all?  And my
apologies
if this has already been answered.  I figure it probably  has, but not when
I was reading, and the archives are painful to search  through.

Phil Wilson
1966 Corsa conv. ~ www.66Corvair.com
Santa  Barbara, CA




Phil - You will get lots of advice. No matter what you do, you will really  
be supplying two different needs. First -The ignitor itself - the
electronics  
box that mounts on the point plate can use something like 6 to 15 volts and
be 
 happy with that feed. That feed is only powering the tiny bit of
electronics 
 inside the box. Second - The actual voltage that the coil wants to operate

on depends on the coil itself. Some coils will work fine on 12 volts
(actually 
 up to the 15 volts that you alternator puts out for a while if the battery 
is  low.) But some coils are designed to run on only the resistance-dropped
9 
volts  (approximately) that the stock wiring supplies. The amount of current

that goes  through the coil is the load that the ignitor has to switch on
and 
off. The  Ignitor has only a limited amount of current it can switch on and
off, 
without  being overloaded. If the coil design results in too much current 
going through,  you run a risk of the Ignitor dying. 
The design of the Ignitor package allows you to just hook the red (at least

on mine) wire up to the coil and feed the ignitor whatever voltage the coil

is getting. That assures that the Ignitor and the coil are operating at the 
same  voltage. But you don't have to do that. Remember that the firewall
feed 
from the  ignition switch is 12 volts. That 12 volt feed goes to the plug at
the 
starter  via the voltage dropping, braided, resistance wire and drops to  
about  8-9 volts. At that point the power is fed to the coil. During
cranking the  
resistance wire is bypassed and the starter solenoid feed the coil 12 volts

through that same copper wire. You can choose to feed the ignitor with 12 
volts  and the coil with the dropped voltage (8-9) if you wish. It depends
on  
which coil you are using.  Pertronix, I believe has a method for testing
the 
resistance of your ignition coil. This determines whether you should drop
the 
voltage to it during normal running. Pertronix sell several  different coils
as 
well. I have installed the Ignitor with the ignition switched  voltage
feeding 
12 volts to the ignitor, and the dropped voltage feeding the  coil. It
worked 
fine and gave me great service. If the coil is designed to use  with a full 
12 volts, the Ignitor will happily switch that same voltage and  you will
also 
get a long and happy module life. The Ignitor has great appeal due  to the 
simplicity of the basic installation. If the rest of the wiring is in  good
shape 
and you get a stable voltage feed to the coil and module, you will  end up 
with a low maintenance, visually subtle installation. More time to drive
your 
Corvair! - Seth Emerson  - Silicone Wire  Systems  
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