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..

[0jwg4vjmjoeif]

When i did my pertronics, i pulled the distributor out and worked on the bench. It sounds like ur timing is off. If it wants to start. Did u change the timing? I had to put spacers in to get the pertronic to sit right. I dont think i could have installed while it was on engine....

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

My experience as well. And what has been covered in my post in the Help section. Including pictures.

[Kim K Kaiser]

this particular unit does not require spacers or gaps, according to the manual,  its the 1181 LS  (lobe sensor)

no magnets, just the little ignitor piece,  connecter for the coil and a grommet of the bottom of the distributor,

makes no mention of removing anything other than the dist cap,, that is why i got it, for ease of installation.  fancy that!!  i didnt not change any timing, unless removing the cap disturbs it.

Back to the issue,

so on each turn of the engine, the rotating cap moves around, ending in different place each time, doest that correspond with the timing marks?  should i take off the cap, and turn the key till the mark lines up with the little gauge on the block, at that point am i to assume that the strip on the top is then aligned with the number one plug at the 330 to 400 o'clock position.?

then, put the cap back on, and try a full start?  is that where I am at??

[Kim K Kaiser]

OK,, well, for all the help i got thanks,,as i was toiling away, here n the rv park,, a driver from the park service came up, said what are you doing.. putting in a electronic ignition.  ?? i said yes, but wont start, he said lets look,, i said, ok,, so i told him i was trying to line up the gauge to center, so we got it to perfect, hooked up everything,  Nothing!!  so he said do you have spark at 1st plug, said, someone suggested that but i didnt know how to test,, so he pulled the plug, we gave it a turn,, nothing!!!  so he said we have a power problem, so  i asked him, So you like to work on cars?  he drives a 500,000 mobile home rig,, he said, yes,, i used to be the auto mechanic shop teacher and electrical mechanics,,,,I thought,, mana from heaven,,, so he took off his shirt, got some tools, got up under the dash, i explained the hook up, we hooked volt meter to all kinds of wires, got power to where it was supposed to go hooked it up again, tried to start ,,,, nothing..!!  he was stumped.  so,, he looked at the wires from the distributor, started thinking t himself about power source,, and we checked plug again,, NOTHING!!  he looked at the wire that sticks out over the top of the coil, that feeds it the power, pulled on it,, and said,, what is this,, i said its the power, well,, it turns out,, last evening,,, when i was putting things back to gather, one of the Spark wires had gotten caught under the  air filter box, and i undid it from the distribulort, pulled it out, and put it all back,, every thing was hunky dory, i had all my stuff covered up,  well, he pulled on the spark wire from the passenger side plug and it iwasa hooked to the COIL!!!!   and the other one was hooked to the distributor,,, Definitively a forrest gump moment,, stupid is as stupid does.   he laughed, and said,, I bet this is the problem,,  and we put things were things were supposed to go,, turned it over, and VOILA it started!!!! running rough as a cob, but it started.. tomorrow, he will show me how to reset the timing,,,,we both had a good laugh,, but he said, thats one of those things you probably wont do but once and it didnt hurt anything.   Anyway,, two hours later and lots of cussing, that, in the end, was it, i had the wires crossed...he gave me some engine knowledge along the way,  which I really needed and appreciated,, so, one more drama taken care of,,,hopefully more hours of good driving before i mess with the rule of if it aint broke dont fix it.. seems i read that here somewhere before,

again, thanks for all the insight and help, it got me going, and furthered some of my understanding of how things work..

Sincerely

Kim

[3ft7bqmb7dryo]

Good coverage and good story for the camp fire tonight.

[Kim K Kaiser]

yeah,, nothing like the old RV park for characters and experience people of all walks

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

As always Tony is correct:

Then if you really want to take advantage of the extra energy you could get better spark plugs. I use Iridium.

If you offset the side electrode a little bit, only on copper type spark plugs, you can double life expectancy. Basically what you do is using one side of the center electrode and when moving the side electrode (also called grounding electrode) to the other side of the center electrode you have a new spark plug! After offsetting always check the gap using a round wire type gauging tool.

[Kim K Kaiser]

Still more follow up in re plugs,

I have the suggestion of 45 for gap on per tonics and the ism says 34 or 35, i believe.

so if i do decide to go for more tuning, which do i use, 35 or 45,, would this be a performance application,, my limited knowledge of "performance" is like a hot rod or souped up chevy, or can the term be applied to specific applications such as the petronix improving "performance".  

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

Well, do consider that now you have at least twice as much power in the electrical arc. So if the arc is longer it will be able to ignite more fuel and do it better/faster. Its not really about our cars being "performance cars" in the sense like racing cars or dragsters. But if your system can produce a better spark you will use the fuel better and might get a tad bit more power out of it.

[Kim K Kaiser]

i am guessing that this is one of those times that if it aint broke, dont fix it,, just wait till plugs start going,, or,, would the change be recommended now.  

its funny,  people around the RV park know I'm a novice, and some old hands like to have a look and give help on these old engines,  but, the Yellowstone season is winding down and the people are pulling out,, my supply of free advice and labor around here is drying up,,so I'm a little reluctant to go at this,

but if i do,    

Do i just pull the plugs, get new ones, and adjust the gap with my set of little pieces of metal to add up to .45,,slide in between the gap,,,,set back in, put caps back on, then reset timing,, or will timing not be affected by this operation.

it seems to be running good,, knock on wood,  3 hour rid in to the park yesterday, 100 mile back and forth to bozeman 2 days before,, no apparent burps,,,the bozeman run was at 60-65 mph, then a dropdown to town driving,,

13.2 mph 

[24ro8f5mbs2jc]

Timing will not be affected by change of spark plugs.

1. You can continue to run with current plugs. 2. You can remove the plugs and increase the gap. 3. Or you can buy new plugs and set them on the increased gap. Your choice.

When I was doing my ignition I removed all of it and installed new stuff. From Ignitor, rotor, and so on. Wanted it to be as good as possible and things tend do be at fault at the weakest link. And if everything else is new except the plugs....

Then off course its not the plugs that fails, its the new stuff!!!! Its called Murphys Law...