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Ignitor and Coil Recommendations

6

67TXStang

Member
I'm faily certain my Petronix Ignitor is going out in my Mustang. I've isolated the car dying randomly to this part. I'm now waiting for it to happen again to confirm. This has me wondering if I should get another Pertronix or something different.

My distributor is out of a '69 Mustang. I'm going to assume it has never been rebuilt. Everything else block, heads, etc are original to my '67 so I'm not sure why this part is different. I've a 3 month old Pertronix Flame Thrower I coil in the Mustang now. The distributor has an Ignitor I.

I've performance with an original appearance in mind. This makes me want to stick with a points conversion which fits in the original distributor. Should I get an Ignitor I, II, or III? The II has adjustable dwell (I'm not sure if this is valuable) and states it puts out a better spark. The III states it has multi-spark capability. Are either of these worth the money (I - $70, II - $99, III - $129)?

From what I understand, I might need a new coil to use the II or III. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
What makes you think it's the Ignitor that's acting up? I wouldn't wish an Ignitor II on my worst enemy (they have a HORRIBLE failure rate). I wouldn't buy an Ignitor III until they've been on the market longer and have been "road tested" better.

The Ignitor I was always a pretty reliable device. I'm not sure I would call it "performance oriented", though. It does nothing that points don't do, except they don't wear out like points.
 
The Ignitor II failures were well documented on the VMF. I've heard of a few bad Pertronix I's, but only a very few.

I would suspect the coil more than the Ignitor I.
 
Seems like there are more than a few people that have had BAD luck with the pertronix coils; I think charlie/roadracer even tossed his in the lake at a racetrack. :rofl After some of the stories I've heard, I'd be much more inclined to trust one of the conventional looking MSD blaster coils.

I'd be tempted to try and rule out the Pertonix and swap in some points, just as a test.
That's assuming it's NOT the coil.

If you wait til it quits running and immediately check the coil with a voltmeter while the car is in it's "dead as a rock" condition. A bad coil should show up as "open".


I'd replace it with a Ford DurasparkII and a Chevy HEI module. The Chevy module is cheaper, more common, and easier to wire up correctly. Finding the Duraspark connectors so you can build a nice wiring harness is darn neart impossible and the HEI wiring is available at any Autozone. Plus, your existing distributor might be fairly worn out, so a freshly rebuilt one might be a small added bonus.
 
I don't believe the problem is the coil. While the problem was happening, I switched from my new coil to a known good coil. The issue happened with both of them.

The problem happens and then disappears after about five minutes. I'm waiting for it to happen again as I have a specific test procedure to test the Ignitor directly from their website.

I had no idea an Ignitor I would go out if you left the key on. I've done that reqularly to check for an ignition powered wire or to have the radio on while I waited for someone. I like the Ignitor II simply cause they corrected that problem. I would like to think the Ignitor II problems are now fixed but who knows. The postings I found on VMF were primarily from 2003-2004.
 
"gotstang" said:
After some of the stories I've heard, I'd be much more inclined to trust one of the conventional looking MSD blaster coils.
Click to expand...

A Pertronix Ignitor will fry an MSD Blaster coil in about 30 minutes, unless you run ballast resitor between the two. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
 
It always annoys me to find out I bought and installed something and that it may be junk.

I'm running a PII in my car that I put in the engine before the car went for paint 18 months ago. I haven't even really driven the car yet. If I have a problem with it 6 months from now, that means I'm at 2 years since purchase vice 6 months.

To clarify, its not posts like this that annoy me, its products that don't have a good track record. I hate spending my money on junk.
 
I went with a PII. Installed it about a week ago. I've put 50 miles on it and have not had any trouble. No noticeable difference between it and a PI. I went with the PII as the PI can burn out if you leave the ignition on.
 
"67TXStang" said:
I had no idea an Ignitor I would go out if you left the key on. I've done that reqularly to check for an ignition powered wire or to have the radio on while I waited for someone. I like the Ignitor II simply cause they corrected that problem.
Click to expand...

To clarify, you burn up a Pertronix Ignitor I if you leave the key in the "On" position, without the engine running.
 
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