Adding a petronix 1181ls

[Kim K Kaiser]

Hi

adding a petronix 1181ls to my 63.  i pulled the distributor cap, undid the points and removed, undid the little cylinder and removed,,

there is still one black wire that i am guessing goes to the coil and another one sort of coiled and attached but neither will remove.  Also, i cant find a hole in the bottom of the distributor to run the new wires through , do i just feed them around so that they can exit out the sort of open side of the distributor??

anyway, i have read multiple sources on here for the ballast or wire resistor.  and i saw that wiring photo that was posted.

so what i am going to have to do is, take an additional wire, attach it to the red wire from the petronix unit, and then run it back to and attach before the pink wire,,back on to the wire with the brown fabric,, is that correct..

[Kim K Kaiser]

after looking at it all again,, i am going to have to pull the upper dash off to access the location of the resistor wire, and then tie in another wire to that location, BEFORE the brown fabric wire, is that correct.

[Kim K Kaiser]

ok, went to help forum,  pulled the bracket and grommet from firewall, cut back all the tape,,could only come out maybe 3 to 4 inches,, has a vacuum hose there as well,, anyway,  i see the yellow green and brown fabric wire and then, it feeds into a big red wire and a blue wire,  all taped up together, but didnt see the pink wire, could it be further back up in there, thus requiring the dash removal, or at this point, should i go to the fuse box directly

[Kim K Kaiser]

well, i finally found the tie in of the cloth resistor wire and the pink wire,  it was about a foot up under the dash, no way i would have ever got it to pull through firewall.,i cut the resistor wire at that point as I assume the whole point of finding this is to go directly from the ignition to the petronics unit.  I also cut the resistor wire at the coil.  to get it out of the way,  

now, do i run another wire, from the pink wire tie in , through the firewall, tie it into/spllice into the red wire from the petronics unit, then attach to the coil at the positive post.?  it that the sequence of wiring from here forward..??

[Kim K Kaiser]

well, here is what i did.from start to finish

took off cap, removed points and small cylinder, put new ignitor on, it didnt fit exact slot as points, it was over about 90 degrees. but at that position, it fit the little stub pins and the holes lined up perfectly,  

ran wires through bottom,, (old grommet was like stone) but got it out, new one in, removed old coil, put in new coil from petronix,  

found the clothes wire, ran it up under dash to tie in behind the ignition switch,  cut the cloth wire, ran new wire from pink wire through firewall, and tied it into the red wire from ignitor.  put red wire on positive on the coil. black wire on negative on the coil.  put every thing back to getter, turn the key, very slow roll over.

checked the plug wires to make sure none had moved or popped off, check wire to coil. make sure it was seated.  distributor cap seemed to wobble some, so i undid it again, noted it was not properly seated, got it on secure, tried to start again,  it had more oomph, but still wont turn completely over and start,  sort of sounds like it its out of gas.  it just wont fire off.  so, if anyone has a thought here, I'm all ears.

Sincerely

Kim

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

If you followed the instructions in the Help section you should be good to go.

However as your car doesn't start you could have any of the following problems:

1. Incorrect fitted wires or connections. Check that you have current where its supposed to be.

2. Incorrect fitting of Pertronox Ignitor and Coil. Recheck.

3. Distributor cap, rotor, spark plug wires and spark plugs might be defective.

4. Distributor not correctly fitted. Follow installation instruction in Shop Manual.

After this set timing as per Shop Manual.

Also keep in mind that it has been reported that new Pertronix Ignitors has been defective.

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

My guess is that the distributor housing has not been refitted in the correct position. And that the rotor is not pointing exactly towards No 1 spark plug when timing mark is on "0" (TDC = Top Dead Center)

[Kim K Kaiser]

i never did remove the distributor from the engine, i simple took the cap off,, i did remove the rotor, so i guess i can see if it lines up properly,  

[3ft7bqmb7dryo]

Did the rotor align with the mount tabs?  Check for spark at a plug.

[Kim K Kaiser]

im fixin to head back out and get to work on it,, will try to equate the above diagram to what i have,, see how it goes,, stay tuned..

[Kim K Kaiser]

well,, i was back at it,  i followed the 1 plug wire to the cap, looks like it goes into the cap at about 330 or 400 clock position, like in the diagram, but the point adjuster window is on the up side of the cap, not the down side, 

 i looked at the other items,  the ignitor is in what appears to be the only place that it can fit.  it lines up perfectly with the pins and the screw holes,  

the rotor cap with the little copper piece on top, moves around upon starts, but it not movable so i can line it up to the one plug wire,  How can i do that, it if it possible or necessary.,  would this be the next step,   ?

i tried starting couple times.  it turns and turns and turns,, occasionally sputters then turns and turns till i can smell some gas,,flooding i guess,, i took off the dist cap, checked pushed everything down again,, 

guess i should a left well enough along,, it was fine, but i had this part sitting for about 2 months and thought to put it in as the directions seemed quite simple,, they did not say, how difficult and time consuming finding that resistor wire would be, even the you tube videos i watched and there were numerous, dint go into the resistor wire thing, 

anyway, i am at a standstill,, at what part do i continue the search to start from here,  remember, i am very novice, and what seems simple to you is calculus to me.

[3ft7bqmb7dryo]

I think you put the rotor on 180 deg out.  There is a round and square peg for the correct mounting position.

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

To turn the rotor you must crank the engine. It says so in the above instruction.

Best is to remove all 8 spark plugs to minimize drain on battery. Have an assistant turning the key and you check when the scribe mark on the harmonic balancer lines up with timing mark "0" on the engine front cover. You might have to crank the engine over many times before you get a perfect alignment. After that take a long ruler or similar. Hold it over the rotor and check that it is exactly pointing at No: 1 spark plug. If its off remove the distributor and reinsert it again.