Electronic Ignition trouble

[EmbarkChief]

I have an issue with my points conversion on my 710. Right now the Pinz is in the shop, the conversion was done yesterday morning and everything ran fine until later that afternoon. Then all of the sudden it went down and my mechanic said the Pentronix had gone out. I figured it might have been a bad unit so I bought another one overnighted it and had it installed this morning. Now the same thing is happening. Mechaninc says the new unit has failed also, to be honest I'm thinking something else has to be going on. Any ideas?

[Jim LaGuardia]

Did you check the voltage at batteries when running? If your voltage regulator fails it can spike the voltage above 30v DC and fry the unit.
Is the unit melted?, I have only seen 1 unit fail in over 7 years and it was from voltage above 29v DC.
It is more common for the Pertonix coil to fail(also from high voltage).
Also check the red wire at the Molex connector.

[Jimm391730]

If all of the electrical system is functioning correctly, you should see only 16-20 volts at the positive coil terminal when the engine is running. If this voltage is higher then most likely the voltage regulator is pushing the batteries WAY too high (as Jim says above) or the ballast resistor is shorted (not likely) or not in the circuit (more likely, especially if someone has been messing with the wiring harness).

On the other hand, if the stock 4500 rpm box has died (this is quite common) then you could easily see the coil voltage MUCH below 16V and then the truck won't run at all. This is fairly easy to check, the 4500rpm box is under the dash, about the size of a pack of cards, and has a six terminal connector going to it (two rows of three terminals). Pull the connector and jumper the middle terminal of one row to the middle terminal of the other row to bypass the rpm box (don't attempt to plug in the box, just jumper the two harness connector terminals). Now check the voltage at the coil positive terminal. Rpm boxes have been known to fail in bazaar ways; it might seem to work half the time, then not work the next minute.

[EmbarkChief]

Gents, thank you so much for the quick response. I'll update when I know more after this weekend!

[audiocontr]

reversed the wires on the pertronics?

[EmbarkChief]

Well, after some consideration about my mechanical abilities I decided drop her off at "Pinz friendly" garage in Victoria, Texas. I will post when I know more. Thanks for the responses gentlemen!

[Dogslovetrucks]

Hey brother- any updates?

[EmbarkChief]

Update:

Picked up the Pinz from Fritz in Victoria on Thursday and hauled her to the farm in Bastrop. While in Bastrop she got some new shoes (BFG KM2's) and I was able to drive her around a little bit. She ran like a champ, easily felt like she had 30 more HP than before. So we put her on the trailer and hauled her to Cypress Mill for the family deer hunt. She ran Good Friday night taking hunters into the field and back. Saturday morning I again took 6 hunters out only to have her die on me on the way back to camp. Engine just started backfiring and sputtering and generally making a mess of itself. I had to tow is back in with my Jeep. So tomorrow it goes back to Victoria to see if we can get this sorted out. Sorry for any errors, this is all from my IPhone in a deer blind.

Pic from Sat AM before she died.

[Dogslovetrucks]

Nice shoes!! Great looking truck- what size did you go with? Hopefully your electrical ends up being something minor. Good luck!

[Andre]

sounds like a prime candidate for that solid state ignition system.

My stock dizzy and plugs with petronix is rock solid when it's dry. As soon as it rains, the stock plug wires ground out to the shielding where the insulating wires have dried out and cracked.

I will be putting the SSI in a couple of days if I can get some work out. Ill post my findings once I do.

[undysworld]

I was told that in the case of an Italian sports car, it doesn't matter if it even runs because it still looks fast just sitting beside the road. But with a Pinz, if it doesn't run it just looks incompetent. Well I hope the hunting was productive, at least.

Weird problem you're having. Sorry to have no suggestions. Best luck on a quick repair.

[EmbarkChief]

I went with 255/85's, definitely gained some extra ground clearance!



I hear you on the SSI Andre but I'm so far ($$$$) into this damn thing right now that I can't justify pulling new parts until I know for sure that's the problem. As far as the hunting was concerned it didn't go very well either, I'll get'em next time

[HawaiianGauer]

sounds like a prime candidate for that solid state ignition system.

My stock dizzy and plugs with petronix is rock solid when it's dry. As soon as it rains, the stock plug wires ground out to the shielding where the insulating wires have dried out and cracked.

I will be putting the SSI in a couple of days if I can get some work out. Ill post my findings once I do.

Andre-
any update on the SSI? My fun-meter is pegged with the reg elec ignition system so I'm a mouse click away from taking the plunge...

X

[Andre]

I posted my findings so far under Pinzssi post. Very happy with the results.