Bumping this old post in case other readers encounter my recent
Pertronix failure experience. I've used
Pertronix units for many years on my various old Fords, and love them. I know nothing of the
Pertronix II and III models; I've only used the "original", which replaces the points and condenser inside the distributor cap. They've been absolutely flawless... UNTIL this started happening: after a couple minutes of run time, my car would immediately stall (no stumble, no rough running, just an instant quit). I couldn't restart right away, but after :30 seconds or so, she'd fire right up and I'd have no further problems. During on one of these episodes, I checked the
carburetor. Good accelerator pump squirts, so she wasn't starving for fuel, and the instant-quit indicated an ignition issue anyway. I checked grounds, connections, voltage readings, and began one-by-one switching each ignition component with spares. Voila! It was the
Pertronix unit, the piece which mounts on the points-and-
coil plate. A quick check with an ohmmeter showed an open circuit in the unit, as compared with two known good units, which show some resistance. I have no idea why it failed; the car is otherwise bone-stock and I'm using
Pertronix' Flamethrower
coil in the exact configuration they recommend. So... go figure. One of those random occurrences to remind you that even an upgrade to a more "reliable" system can still have problems.
