I recently bought a 68 inline six that apart from a wiring mess under the dash is in pretty decent shape. I decided to upgrade the ignition with the Pertronix Ignitor and the installation was a breeze. The truck was running great until late last week when I suddenly lost power and then it died completely. It was near midnight and in a dubious part of town so I called a wrecker and got a tow home. My initial check of the distributor showed nothing out of the ordinary but my coil was quite warm. No problem I thought, I just put in an aftermarket coil in the morning and all will be well.
New coil and it still wouldn't fire. Another inspection under the dizzy cap showed the trouble-the green tape that holds the magnets in the sleeve that goes under the rotor had come loose and was balled up in the top of the cap. Four of the six magnets were scattered on the points plate. No problem I thought. I replaced the magnets and ran a thin piece of clear packing tape around the ring and fired the truck up.It started but was running rough. I check this forum and find that I may need to remove the red wire from the coil and splice it into a switched 12v line. I do that. Still running rough.Tweek the carb. Nothing. The forum tells me that I have to make sure I reattached the woven ground wire from the base of the distributor to the point plate. I do that. Still rough. New distributor cap and rotor.Tweek the carb. Nothing. New spark plug wires. Nothing.
I check my timing again and now my cheap timing light isn't working. Halfway in my car to buy a new one when it hits me. No spark,no timing light flash.
As a matter of fact there was no spark to cylinder 4 and 6 either. The culprit of this expensive and time consuming week of diagnostics?-I put three of the magnets in the rotor sleeve in backwards. Their polarity was reversed so the Ignitor wouldn't fire on those cylinders.I pulled the magnets out and lined them up so they stuck together, put them back in "sticky side out" and now my truck runs better than ever. Live and learn.

 

Wow, interesting.

But why did the green tape fail? I just ordered an Ignitor II for my 240 six, so I am curious what went wrong for you in the first place.

later...

 

I'm not sure why it failed. Maybe a corner of the tape somehow got pulled down during installation.There is a warning in the instructions not to remove the tape and the way it is worded suggests that it(the tape) is not found on all applications. When I eventually found it stuck in the top my distributor, it was rolled up tight as a drum. A pain, but the performance upgrade was well worth the hassle.

 

I had that exact same thing happen with my ignitor. I think one problem is the direction it is wound is opposite of the direction of rotation. In my case I had just oiled the wick on the top of the distributor shaft and the oil got on the tape and made the adhesive fail. Yea, I put the magnets in wrong the first time too, it took me awhile to figure out the polarity thing. I reattached the tape with a strong adhesive so it won't come off again. Anyone using one of these is strongly advised to take a moment and make sure that tape is glued permanently!

 

Why can't you use some kind of super glue or epoxy?

 

Was yours a Ignitor 1 or 2? I just installed a Ignitor 2 . It had no green tape. It was solid plastic , with the magnets inbeded in the plastic.

Easy thing I ever installed. More HP, Fuel econmy and Starting.

Installed on a FE.

 

It was an Ignitor 1

 

edit.
a proper search has clear'd many things up... thanks.

 

Mine was like JackFlack's unit. Don't remember any tape and such. About 5 minutes and I was done. Been in there for several yrs now, and never pulled the dist cap off. (Knock on wood).