Hello Group -
During restoration of my late father's 1957 300C, I installed a
Pertronix Ignitor II electronic conversion kit (no more
miserable-to-adjust points in the inaccessible distributor!) along
with their "Blaster" 0.6 Ohm 45kV coil. Pertronix instructions
say their unit wants a steady 12 volts, not the reduced voltage
from the ballast resistor, so I just filled in the backside of the
original ceramic ballast resistor with solder (no a NO-resistance
resistor!) so it gets constant 12 volts while maintaining
completely stock appearance. I also wanted to use modern
stainless steel spiral-wrapped plug wires for RFI suppression to
get best sound from the radio and Highway Hi-Fi; I had to have
those specially made because those wires are not ordinarily
supplied in the original black color and 7mm size to fit into the
long spark plug connectors (but there are lots of 8, 9, 10mm
diameter SS-spiral-wrapped wires available in gaudy red, blue,
yellow, etc.). The new setup looks perfectly stock and works
very well, especially when coupled with modern fine-wire
Iridium-electrode spark plugs (long life and foul-resistant) -
usually starts within 1/2 second! The starting and running have
been quite reliable for the last two years.
HOWEVER, It turns out that my combination of ignition components
may have been serendipitous....... I just now talked with
the Pertronix Corporation about an application for one of my
Porsches, and learned some startling information about their
products, which may have great impact on the reliability of the
conversion! It turns out that the Pertronix kit is NOT electrically compatible
with the usual copper-core plug wires we are accustomed to; the
representative cautioned me that their unit will usually fail
within two years or less because the RF interference from
copper-core wires will FRY the electronics!! That plug-wire
incompatibility is NOT mentioned in their installation
instructions - Maybe that is why we have long heard about spotty
reliability from the Pertronix conversions! I told the rep that
the failure to highlight that admonition regarding plug wires in
their instruction was a major oversight on their part and was
probably hurting their reputation because of reliability
experiences. He agreed and said he would forward that
recommendation to upper management.
BOTTOM LINE: The Pertronix factory says: DO NOT USE the usual copper-core wires with any Pertronix conversion unit!! I had my special-order black 7mm RFI-suppressed bulk plug wire made by Kingsborne Wire Werks (www.kingsborne.com) 800-642-0375, and also bought their distributor-end terminals to fabricate my own set of custom-length plug wires. They were reasonably priced with quick turnaround.
Ray Melton Las Cruces, NM
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