1958 non-FI car. I forgot to repolarize the generator after a body off restoration. I drove the car about 150 miles like this and to keep a very long story short, I'm having ignition troubles. What could I have damaged? I did the general trouble shooting checks in the Pass car manual and the gen was ok but the voltage reg failed. The voltage did not increase with higher RPMs. I replaced the volt reg with a NAPA part. I took the cover off the old one (it was a recent replacement by the prior owner) and did not see signs of burned or corroded contacts. The gen was recently rebuilt by prior owner. I did the ignition circuit tests in the pass manual and all the tests are ok but I'm burning points. The coil is a pertronix 0.6 ohm coil and the ballast is a NAPA part that reads about 2 ohms or slightly more. Could the coil be damaged? The story is way more involved than this and I'm a lousey typer. If a knowledgable kind person would please speak to me on the phone that would be great. Please email me.. TIA Ken
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
Possibly you have the polarity reversed on the the distributor. This is fairly common and will burn points in short order. The negative side of the coil should go to the distributor. -
Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
Let me see if I understand what you wrote, I think you said you are using a pertronics coil with .6 ohms of primary resistance with a points distributor? If so, I would try a coil designed for a points system. The low resistance spec for a GM 12volt coil is around 1.2 ohms, with a high side of about 1.5 ohms. at .6 ohms, you are pulling twice the design current thru the points. Please let me know if I'm reading you correctly or if I have missed something?Bill Clupper #618Comment
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
Bill, You understood my babble correctly. I did run the car today without incident using the aformentioned system. However the drive was only a 6 mile round trip to a local show. Would/could the low ohm combination (0.2 resistor + 0.6 ohm coil) have burned the points in the prior 2 mile test drive yesterday? I have heard of people emergently driving a set of points without a ballast resisitor to get the car home. My point here is that I'm searching for a cause for the failed pertronix unit ie voltage surge. I put the voltmeter between the coil positive and to ground and got a read of roughly 7 volts which went up to about 10 volts with a modest increase in engine RPM. Is this normal to go up with RPM? Thanks KenComment
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
depends on idle speed, most Corvette C-1 systems will show a slight discharge at idle, or at best a neutral state. When the rpm goes up, the system voltage goes up, and thus your igntion system voltage would increase also. i would start with a standard coil of proper resistance, a 1.8 ohm ballsat (many service bulletins from Chevy about burned points with 1.3 ohm ballast) ans see how that works. Just one more note, a new condensor wouldn't hurt either.Bill Clupper #618Comment
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
Did the new condensor. Thanks on the update on the ballast resistor. Will give it a shot for a while and then maybe go back to the pertronix. I have the original coil but did not want to chance ruining it if something was really wrong. If I go back to the pertronix should I still use the ballast resistor? None of what I have read mention using a ballast resistor with the pertronix ignitor II. I'm asking this because maybe a voltage spike from the generator killed the ignitorII and a ballast might help keep the volts lower but in operating range for the ignitorII. As you can tell I'm not electrically inclined. TIA KenComment
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
don't you mean .3 ohms resistor not 1.3 ohms?Comment
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
Yes, I'm suggesting the use of P/N 1957154, 1.8 ohms or equivalent unit. My error. The problem child is the 1931385 which is 0.3 ohms as you noted.Bill Clupper #618Comment
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Re: C1 Electrical Homer Simpson Style
The Pertronix instructions are very poorly written, but their techs (who apparently don't eat lunch with the guys who write the instructions) will tell you that the Pertronix module (red wire) wants a full 12 volts, but you still need the ballast resistor for the stock coil. You'll have to ask them if their Pertronix coil is designed to run on 12 volts or on resistor-reduced voltage; a stock coil run continuously on a full 12 volts will fry in short order. The new reproduction ballast resistor sold by Paragon measures 2.3 ohms - I've had one on my '67 with a 202 coil for three years, and the points look great.Comment
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