<VV> Crapoutitis

[corvairs]

As someone who sends about 5 Ignitors back to Pertronix every 2 months 
or so, I'll chime in. We get an engineering report back with every one 
we send in and 75-80% of them have nothing wrong with them, even though 
Pertronix always replaces them with new units. (I suspect it's what the 
customer expects for a "warranty")

I'm not sure how many of these I've sold over the years - thousands. 
I've also dealt with the warranty issues. Of the people I've spoken to I 
would make these general conclusions. The vast majority of warranty 
returns are because 1) The customer did not reset the timing when the 
Ignitor was installed. Sometimes this is even after I carefully explain 
that the timing will almost certainly have to be reset. They just don't 
believe me. 2) There is something else wrong, but Pertronix has the 
easiest and most liberal return policy so why not? 3) The Ignitor was 
purchased to "fix" an existing problem. When the same problem is still 
present the customer is certain it's the Ignitors fault. Does that make 
any logical sense to you? It doesn't to me either, but you'd be 
surprised. 4) The resistor wire is failing or for some other reason the 
threshhold voltage is no longer reaching the Ignitor. people forget 
that, unlike points which have a much lower voltage requirement, the 
Ignitor needs a threshold voltage or it's won't work.

Lon

Michael Kovacs wrote:

> Exact symptoms I experienced. When it gets hot it starts to fail. When cooled off for an hour or so it seems fine. I sent mine back to Petronics and they said there was nothing wrong with it. I doubt they ran it hot for and hour or so. I replaced the Pertonics 1 with a Petronics 2 and carry the original point set up in the car. 
>   
>   It is for sure the Petronics, but try to swap the coil first as the symptoms you describe also may apply to a failing coil.
>   
>  Was yours a 1 or 2?
>   
>  mike
>  
>
>Jim Bannister <jimster1 at earthlink.net> wrote: 
>  Hi All,
>
>I think I'm beginning to suffer the death of my Pertronix ignition system.
>Is there a know failure mode? What I'm seeing is the following, the engine
>seems fine until its been operating for about 20 minutes. Before 20
>minutes, it'll pull to the redline in 1, 2 And 3rd gear with 7psi boost
>without a hiccup. Slowly as things warm, the engine will not pull under
>load without missing badly. Even giving gas gently will cause it to miss
>and try to die. Eventually, it won't idle or run under 2500 rpm. If it
>dies, it'll restart but needs full throttle to get going. Giving it a one
>hour rest, returns everything to normal. Has anybody seen similar symptoms?
>I'm first going to swap out the coil and see what happens. After that, I'll
>put the points back in and see what happens. Can anyone think of anything
>else that I might be missing?
>
>Jim B.
>
>
>
>MIKE KOVACS
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