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MG MGB Technical - Petronix Quality Control

Just curious if anyone else has had problems with their Petronix ignitor. I had mine installed for about 2 weeks and it bit the dust. I've always heard rumors that they have poor quality control. I just sent mine back today, to get it warrantied, so I'll get to test their customer service now.
To anyone who has had a bad Petronix, how long did it take before they fixed/replaced it? Is 2 weeks realistic? They are in Southern CA, and I'm in Northern CA.
thanks
Bill
Bill Mertz

Bill, Sorry to hear about you're problem. Had mine on for at least a year and it's the best thing I ever did. Really smoothed out the idle and timing. No problems so far. Hope the replacement is reliable.

Andy 74 BGT.
Andy Preston

I've had mine installed for about 3 years and have been happy with it too. The only problem I ever had was my fault. I didn't realize that I accidently pulled the wires too tight from inside the distributor. Only after I started experiencing an uneven and abnormal misfiring did I find that the rotor shaft had worn through the insulation and was causing an occasional short to ground. I know you're not supposed to leave the ignition on for long periods without the engine running as they say it may burn out the ignitor module or whatever powers the unit. However they don't tell you their definiton of a long period of time either.

Wait, I take that back, I did have one problem during installation. When fitted the gap between the donut that fits over the rotor shaft and the module was too large. In my case it was about .043 if I remember correctly. It's supposed to be around .025 so I sloted one of the holes to bring it closer. I wonder if this could have been a part of your problem?

BTW my kit is for a 25D dizzy w/ negative ground if that makes any difference.
Jared Snider

I ran an Ignitor for about two years before it went feet up. It failed with very little warning -- one morning the car just would not start. As I was running late for work I jumped in the <mumble>Honda</mumble> figuring I'd sort it out when I got home. Of course that evening it fired right up. I attributed it to the car having sat for a while before that day and didn't worry too much -- it had been dead reliable up until that point.

Next morning I hopped in, fired it up, and got about a mile down the road when the Ignitor packed up. Using a test light I quickly determined that the Ignitor was the problem, so I swapped in the points I carry and continued on my way.

I'm currently running with points, but I'm seriously considering another Ignitor.... I do think it ran better with the Ignitor than it does on points.

BTW -- anyone ever figure out the bouncy tach problem with Ignitors?
Rob Edwards

I installed an Ignitor and my tach read about 1000 rpm's too high. Nothing I did would change that. I removed it and put the points back in, back to normal.

I haven't bothered to reinstall it since that made me nuts. Any ideas what caused that?

Robert
Robert Rushing

I have well over 40,000 miles on an Ignitor
with NO problems whatso ever and this includes a longish road trip (So.Cal. to Canada and back) drivning on a bum generator during the day (mostly) and re-charging the battery during the night , that car has a cheapo elctronic tach that reads correctly and always has .

One of my buddies stupidly reversed the connections whilst installing his Ignitor and blew it out , they warranteed it no problem ! .
-Nate
Nate

I have had two fail on customer cars. No more for me I will stick with Allison/Crane. Never had one fail except if wires are routed wrong and break due to vac advance. Bob Thompson
Bob Thompson

I got one that was DOA. I returned it and they sent back a replacement back pronto. No problems with the replacement.

Steve
Steve Merical

Had mine 3 seasons now. About 20 - 25K miles. No problems.
Fred Horstmeyer

Had one a few years ago and the car ran OK, except that there was always a light miss, all the time, under all conditions. I put the points back in, problem solved. I even tried the pertronix again at a later date with the same results. Strangely enough, I had previously tried a Crane/Allison ignition and it failed completely one night several miles from home. I'm sticking with points.
Paul Briggs

The one thing that no manufacturer can control is the condition of the system that his product is going into. He may give you great instructions, excellent components, and an iron clad warranty, but it is next to impossible to know whether there are problems, anomalies, or blunders in installing their product into any car.

I guess that is my opinion after a long time of observing all sorts of items, especially electronic, added into existing systems, also of all sorts. If you look back through many years of postings here and elsewhere about the Pertronix unit, you see a pattern of contributing factors to the early demise of these units. I suppose I could call it a basic design flaw, I really don't know what it is, but it does seem that some electronics is less tolerant of error, either within itself (these are the so-called acts of God that cause components to go to hell, often within the 90 day warranty/burn-in period) or from vagaries of any given electronic system.

We don't often see complaints about the Crane XR-700 units, but perhaps that is simply a matter of reporting. Given the price differential available for the two units, I would hazard a guess that more Pertronix units are bought than Crane units, at least by the folks who check in here. If I recall, I think there is a thread from last year or the year before that asked for a survey of these unit's owners, perhaps one should look there for a relatively meaningful concensus??
Bob Muenchausen

I'm using the Crane XR700. In my case, I
did have two failures due to installation errors.
First, I didn't secure the shutter properly with
the snap ring, and it came loose. Second,
one has to be careful in wiring the optical trigger,
so that the vacuum advance doesn't bend and
break the wires.

Once I installed it properly, it has been fine
for 2+ years. But this does suggest installation
errors are one cause of problems with elect.
ignitions, as Bob M. suggests.

The disadvantage of the Crane is that it requires
a separate control box which may or may not be
an issue.
Ronald

So points or electronic™, what'll it be?

For the Ignitor®, call 1-800-..... For points, call 1-800-.....
Scott

I forgot to mention the resistance in the coil's primary circut is of importance when using the Pertronix Ignitor - I see where most folks just plop it on and don't bother to test the coil . I also see about 1/2 of the MG's I work on have incorrect coils , having been replaced by the DPO at some point . this might be a reason for early failures ? .

-Nate
Nate

Nate, a few years ago I went round and round with some folks on this bbs. I had just installed my new pertronix and a little while later my brand spankin new coil from moss failed.

I was told that the ignitor couldn,t have caused the coil to fail, which makes sense to me, but what a coincidence.

I was also told that coil failure isn't a problem with MGs. HA! When I look at the threads, I think it's the most common failure mode there is.

I have one question for you. If I obtain a Lucas Euro spec distributor, do you think my current mga ignitor will work with it and (two questions)what do you mean by wrong coil also (three questions) how does one test the coil.

Also what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Fred Horstmeyer

Bill,
I have run a pertronix in my B for 4 years now with no problems, over 25,000 miles and 2 X-countries. I have just installed one in my TD and the difference is incredible. I've got no complaints, however, I carry a spare in both cars cause there's no telling when it will give up the ghost.
Robert Dougherty

Fred:

I spoke with a guy at pertronix while ordering a kit for the mallory dual point I run in the race car. Apparently the older versions require a coil resistance of (IIRC) 5 ohms, while the ignitor II can run on coils with as low as 0.7 ohms in the primary windings.

All coils are not created equal

I've been running an MSD Blaster II coil on the car with a ballast- the Ignitor would require retaining the ballast, the Ignitor II I may be able to punt it.

The key point of this entry is read about the compatibilities and capabilities, and call the info line at suppliers. MSD publishes coils resistance on their web site where I found the coil resistance.

Final item: European or African?
Greg Fast

Fred:
Is your MGA Ignitor for the MGA dizzy, which just happens to be very much the same as the 25D4 used in the early Bs?? If so, then NO, the MGA ignitor will not work with that EuroSpec dizzy as it is a Lucas 45D4 with a whole different breaker plate and requiring a different version Ignitor. And remember, some MGA's are still positive ground - is yours???? If so, that alone will preclude it working with the MGA ignitor. FWIW.
Bob Muenchausen

This thread was discussed between 13/08/2002 and 15/08/2002

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