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So ever since i installed this with the flame thrower 3 coil two months ago, the engine has had an irregular miss to it. Im not good with electrical stuff so i tried all sorts of things. Gapped the spark plugs to .045, installed the 3g 130 amp alternator cus i thought i just wasnt getting enough juice to run everything i had as far as electrical accesories. Nothing worked. Then over the last couple days it started running like crap. Today i tried figuring out why. Adjusted the timing and the carb, took it around the block, no change. Went to fire it back up and it died on me and wouldnt restart. I had to get to work so i went ahead and reinstalled the old points and coil. Fired right up and runs fine and no more miss. Is it very common for the Ignitor II system to go out after 2 months of decent performance with no issues? Second question, can i still run the Flame thrower 3 coil with the points? This thing has been a complete pain in the butt since i ordered it and am really thinking about just sticking with the points till i have the money to go all MSD. Any thought or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
The Petronics system needs a full 12 volts to it to operate properly. So you need to bypass the resister wire to get that 12 volts. I did hundreds of these in boats and that was always the issue if the was a misfire problem. Finally I quit trying to cheat and always bypassed the resistor or resistor wire and never had the missing issue again.
When I first installed the system it wouldnt want to start sometimes. Turnes out that was the problem. I eventually found the resistor wire and bypassed it and it ran alright, but even with it bypassed and getting a full 12 volts to the coil (checked with the volt meter) it still always had a slight miss. Over the last couple weeks it got a little more noticable, and then like i said, the last couple days it ran like complete crap.
Despite the fact Pertronix states the Flamethrower III coil is compatible with the Ignitor II, it is evident that the III coil has almost 1/2 the resistance of the II coil. This means the III coil will draw much higher current.
I'd seriously try a II coil,, but before I went out spending money *****-nilly, I'd make sure the 12VDC wiring is very healthy, AND the grounds are very healthy.
I see you already tired a jumper wire from the battery to the coil and didn't have any success, so maybe it's a ground problem.
I added a ground wire from my distributor housing to the enigne block to make sure of a good ground.
On a related note, I had coil problems with my Ignitor I conversion. It worked fine for a few years, but I had some engine problems and the heads and block deck were skimmed slightly during the rebuild.
After that, I had major misfire problems. Turned out the NAPA coil I was using didn't provide enough spark energy for the slight increase in CR, although if I put the points back in, it ran fine. Switched to the recommended Flamethrower coil and that cured all problems.
These Ignitor systems seem very touchy about what coil you use. A points system resonates when the points open due to the condensor in parallel with the coil and this creates sufficient spark energy. The ignitor relies on a single clean break in the current to the coil, and with no condensor, you get a high voltage spark, but of limited duration.
Since the sparkplug gap (along with compression pressure) determines the firing voltage at the gap, the rest of this short duration coil output is taken up along the igntion wires and rotor gap.
To summarize, Ignitor/Coil matching is touchy as it is, and any problem with the coil selection, battery connections or grounds can cause grief.
Now you might be headed in the wrong direction a little bit. How old are your ignition wires? The high voltage of the Flamethrower coil can easily break-down wires that are in poor condition, or even too small a diameter. It might be of interest to do the midnight test. Look under the hood at night. Spark leaks and/or corona may be present indicating new wires are required.
And of course, inspect the inside of the dist cap and rotor button condition.
I had never thought to check the ground. It fired so i figured it was good. The cap and rotor are maybe a year old at most. I replaced the spark plug wires with 8mm at the same time i put the system on. At this point its running good with the points so i think im gonna just leave them on, and when i get my 445 stroker and put it in the 1965 galaxie xl 2 door i picked up the other day i'll go with a full MSD system or something like that. My big question is: Will the Flame Thrower 3 coil work with the points? And if so, will i need to bypass the resistance wire again?
I just called Petronix and the tech guy said I can run the Flame Thrower 3 coil with the points as long as i still use the resister wire, so i think thats what im going to do for now. Thanks for all the help guys, i really appreciate it.
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