<VV> Yet another Pertronix Ignitor question

[BobHelt@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/23/04 11:53:18 AM US Mountain Standard Time, 
pkw@peachgrove.com writes:

> The author insists that the red wire go to a separate +12V source rather
> than to the plus terminal of the coil.  What say you all?  And my apologies
> if this has already been answered.  I figure it probably has, but not when
> I was reading, and the archives are painful to search through.
> 
Hello, Phil,
Yes this has been discussed and answered several times before, but it's 
always worth it to repeat the points.

The article is essentially correct for Ignitor I.  I suggest that you follow 
his advice. 

Here are the details. That Pertronix unit requires a voltage on that red wire 
spec'd to be between 5 and 15 volts. So if you were to connect the red wire 
to the plus coil terminal it would receive about 6 or so volts. This would be 
sufficient is some cases, but is very near the lower limit. So if for some 
reason the battery voltage was low (bad alternator or regulator!) or that there 
were glitches in the 6 volts that caused this voltage to drop below the minimum, 
then the Pertronix operation could be interrupted and the engine would not 
run right...all without you not knowing what was happening. For example if one 
were to put an oscilloscope on that plus terminal of the coil while the engine 
was running, he would see a lot of jumping around of that 6 volts, caused by 
the open/closed current flow thru the coil. That jumping around might well 
include some excursions below 5 volts. Not good!

So to be sure. To be conservative. To be confident. Connect that red wire to 
an ignition switched +12 volt source, like the article says..
Regards,
Bob Helt