<VV> Petronix, Dwell, Distributor

[Eric S. Eberhard]

I believe so -- it has been a LONG time since I used a dwell 
meter.  I knew mine was bad because it was sloppy, which is only one 
way a dist can be bad.  If you took the cap off, the insides 
"wiggled."  As this got worse, the Petronix II could no longer cover it up.

Your story sounds EXACTLY like mine.  You sound a lot like me, know 
enough to be dangerous.  I had similar problems.  I did everything a 
human could do to a carb.  I did everything a human could do to 
ignition.  Since it was my Judson car I was out of my normal realm 
(stock is much easier because you have actual instructions and 
specs).  I was blaming the Judson setup.

I tried an old Pertronix to see if that was the problem.   The old 
one was the Petronix 1 and the car essentially did not run.  I put a 
different Petronix 2 in (at the time I had 4 Corvairs so I had a lot 
of spare lying about) and it went back to it's slightly bad 
habits.  So Clarks tech person suggested the distributor after 
telling me the difference between p1 and p2 and why the p2 with it's 
dwell adjustment in real time could cover up a bad distributor.

I was never happier than after I got the one from Clarks.

Someone else may be able to tell you a better way ... I would suspect 
variations in dwell and I am not sure you would see that just 
parked.  In fact many people put in a p1 and don't set the dwell (not 
that I have even thought about how/what one could do ...).  For my 
limited talents, a p2 with matching coil was simpler ... just costs a 
little more ;-)

E

At 09:09 PM 11/1/2011, Ramon Rodriguez III wrote:
>That is good info Eric, thanks.
>
>One other question, with the Pertronix I will a dwell meter show me 
>whether or not I'm having a worn distributor problem?  The 
>distributor is not new or rebuilt, I mistakenly thought that it 
>would compensate and nullify that issue if present.  Also if the 
>problem was distributor shaft wobble I'd expect to see the timing 
>mark dancing a bit under the timing light, it has been rock steady.. 
>does that not mean it's ok?
>
>Since I have a dwell meter I'll use that if it will help, otherwise 
>I guess I'll just pull the distributor and check it out.  How do I 
>check the distributor for wear... I assume that I check for 
>looseness, but how much is acceptable and how much is too much?
>
>
>
>Ray R.
>
>
>
>On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Eric S. Eberhard 
><<mailto:flash at vicsmba.com>flash at vicsmba.com> wrote:
>Pertronix 1 and Pertronix II are different animals.  Pertronix II
>adjusts the dwell real-time.  It can help compensate for a poor
>distributor and it does keep you from having to deal with the dwell
>-- both of those items could be causing your problem.
>
>I use Petronix II coil and ignition with battery voltage at the coil
>(a little better than 12 volts generally).
>
>Also use 8mm wires  and good plugs that won't foul.
>
>Often the problem you describe is the distributor ... is it
>sloppy?  Old/new?  I had one car with a real bad one, and the
>Pertronix masked it for a long time and it ran OK.  With points it
>ran like your car. I finally got a Clarks rebuild and it made a large
>improvement.
>
>Do NOT use a Pertronix II coil or high output coil on a Petronix 1
>ignition or it will die.  Use stock or Petronix 1 coil.  I am
>surprised the P1 instructions say not to use 12 volts, they used back
>when there was no P2 ... but people put hot coils in and burned them
>out.  I have never had a P2 fail or behave badly (despite the CORSA article).
>
>Eric


Eric S. Eberhard
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