Installing a Petronix

[felmlym1]

I installed a petronix distributor and flamethrower. started loosing power then completely stopped??? Coil reads 3.0 on low-end then 8270 on high side??? Is my coil bad. the coil that is had with the breaker points never worked with the petronix??? Think distributor is bad???

[vlad_d]

Just did this to my Series 3 as well. Got the same Distributer and coil.

* In the instructions, it says that you should remove the ballast resistor, if your wiring has one. Might check that. It says they don't work with those. Mine didn't have a ballast resistor, but you might check your wiring. It looks like a ceramic block.

* There's instructions about your resistance minimums. If the new coil is out of spec, return it.

* Timing: I watched a bunch of videos with old timers talking about finding the right timing. All bad and too complicated. I found a better way. Rotate engine until it's at TDC. You can find this by the timing mark. Your dist cap only goes on one way. Take a sharpie and draw a line down from #1 plug on the distributer cap, down to the distributer body. Use a carpenter's square to be square. This is so you can see where #1 is on the body with the cap removed. Now, remove the cap and spike your distributer. The rotor should point at your mark(firing #1 plug). If it's a little off, loosen the adjustment/hold-down bolt and move it to point at your sharpie line. Tighten the adjustment. Put cap and plug wires on. It should be perfectly timed at TDC(the Green Bible setting).

Many people on this and other forums said their 2.25L run better at -3 or -6 BTDC. Mine ran nicer at -3 BTDC. But it should start and run well by spiking it mechanically at TDC like I said above.

You can use a timing light, or a derivation of the method above...with your sharpie "firing position" and your timing marks to mechanically set timing perfectly. An engine crank tool helps.

[vlad_d]

I installed a petronix distributor and flamethrower. started loosing power then completely stopped??? Coil reads 3.0 on low-end then 8270 on high side??? Is my coil bad. the coil that is had with the breaker points never worked with the petronix??? Think distributor is bad???

I would check the condenser assembly in the distributer. Did you buy this new, or second hand? If second hand, they sell just the electronic condenser bits. Steamwally on YouTube has a video about it. His wires were pinched and making a bad connection in the condenser.