Mariposa Mike
Well-Known Member
There are other posts on this issue but this is a little different. I have a 66 383 with an older Pertronix unit installed and the car has been running well but I can tell it's been in there a long time and the Pertronix owner did not recognize the number on the unit. The cap looks well used and the rotor had some black residue on the brass electrode. So I wanted to update the unit and installed the Pertronix II unit and a new rotor along with a new cap. Now the engine will not start. Was not getting spark to the plugs. Put the old parts back in except for the new cap. Still will not start. No spark getting to the distributor from the coil. The ballast is doing it's job voltage wise but while the switch was on I noticed the ballast was HOTTER than a Saturday night special. Cannot touch the unit w/o burning your fingers. Is it supposed to be that hot and could it be the coil has been compromised with the new unit and ballast still installed? Coil does not get hot. I carefully taped the bat. + wire that goes to the coil before hand to be sure it's correct. Any idea what is going on? I cannot imagine why the old unit would not work until I saw that it's also not getting juice from the coil.
Ohms testing the coil wire I got a reading of 10 on I think it was the 20 Ohm scale. Moved it while doing so and remained the same value. Fixed a running vehicle
Ohms testing the coil wire I got a reading of 10 on I think it was the 20 Ohm scale. Moved it while doing so and remained the same value. Fixed a running vehicle
