[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by geeteeohguy

Have run nothing but the stock points distributors in my GTO's for over 35 years with no problems and 100's of thousands of miles. Aside from normal maintenance (which I enjoy) there is no reliability downside to points, and no performance gain from electronic, only the convenience of not replacing points every so often. I'd rather do that than be stuck out on the road with a dead HEI unit.

this is EXACTLY my stance

[gtofreek]

I disagree on the no performance gain from electronic ignition. When I switched from points to HEI, my engine would fire up immediately, with a very strong fire. With points, it was always lazy on cold startup, and didn't fire with such authority. Maybe in the 1/4 mile there may not be much if any gain, but for fresh startups, the HEI was wayyyyy better than the points.

[Curly Joe]

dont they wear slightly and then they have to be adjusted. electronics no wear , no adjustment.

[unruhjonny]

everyone who's totally "hands-on" has held the same opinion;
in that a brand new set of points, which has been dialed in, tuns harder than an HEI.

[george kujanski]

There have been countless millions of HEI's produced over the years with a stellar reliability record considering the number of units out there vs. the number of failures.

The one in my daily driver has 233K on it....never had to remove the cap. Other HEI's I've had have not failed either.

Granted, regular maintenance of points (every 10K miles used to be the required maintenance) goes a long way to reliability, but you can't beat the reliability of HEI over a long term, NO required 10K maintenance, and rock solid timing without constantly adjusting.

If you like your points you can keep them..........I'll fire my HEI up and I know EXACTLY where my timing is set, any day, any week, etc.

George

[LATECH]

I am with George on this one.
Points are about as effective as a stone axe. Sure they work, but they are not "Optimum"
HEI will start an engine quicker, especially ifit is flooded.The timing never changes due to changing dwell (points) ,and it will fire under more extreme conditions.
Points will fry the coil and themselves if the key is left on and the points are closed,the Ignitor II wont.
Reason is, the early version plain ol pertronix, would keep the coil charged with the key on,untill the rotor magnet turned off the circuit when it passed over the sensor area , causing the voltage to the coil to lapse and hence fire the ignition. Those would die if the key was on without the engine running.
The old ford aluminum blue grommet boxes work the same way.
The pertronix II took a lesson from GM in there second gen unit. It has active dwell and does not charge the coil until an RPM is sensed as it only charges the coil when the voltage on the trigger circuit is rising ( meaning the engine has to be turning) and only discharges when the voltage is descending(after the magnet passes by and the voltage is dropping). When it is not in motion , no charging of the coil is happening.
Not trying to sway anyone to use the Pertronix , just want to help you guys understand why some prefer it over points.

[john65ss]

I keep thinking that an electronic conversion might be a good idea, but everytime I start looking at available systems and reading about various issues, I end up deciding to just stay with my Blue Streak DR2371XP Breaker points. They've never let me down, and I don't have any poor performance symptoms, so it's hard to justify moving into the 1970s with an electronic conversion.

[PONTIAC DUDE]

Originally Posted by george kujanski

Wiring and install errors are the bane of electronics. It's not forgiving. No engineer in his or hers right mind would release a design into production that doesn't work.

I've installed several units and they work correctly.

The Ignitor versions are points-replacements and the key should never be on for extended periods with the engine not running. The Ignitor II is more like the HEI design; it is safe to leave key on with engine not running, but why do it anyway? That's what the ACC position is for.

A point system has the same problem if the engine stops with the points closed...the coil can get hot and fail.

I've read all these horror stories and I'll bet 90% of them are due to miswiring/ and or customer-induced damage. Not blaming anyone directly, just sayin' one has to be careful and read the install instructions.

George

X 2 Have installed dozens over the years to date and NO issues with any point to Pertronix conversions.

[Dick Boneske]

To convert my '64 GTO to Pertronix from points, what's the simplest way to bypass the resistance wire in the harness? I believe that wire is in the under dash harness, which I would not want to tear into. It's the wire with the insulation that's not plastic, right?

[silverbullet07]

Originally Posted by LATECH

I am with George on this one.
Points are about as effective as a stone axe. Sure they work, but they are not "Optimum"
HEI will start an engine quicker, especially ifit is flooded.The timing never changes due to changing dwell (points) ,and it will fire under more extreme conditions.
Points will fry the coil and themselves if the key is left on and the points are closed,the Ignitor II wont.
Reason is, the early version plain ol pertronix, would keep the coil charged with the key on,untill the rotor magnet turned off the circuit when it passed over the sensor area , causing the voltage to the coil to lapse and hence fire the ignition. Those would die if the key was on without the engine running.
The old ford aluminum blue grommet boxes work the same way.
The pertronix II took a lesson from GM in there second gen unit. It has active dwell and does not charge the coil until an RPM is sensed as it only charges the coil when the voltage on the trigger circuit is rising ( meaning the engine has to be turning) and only discharges when the voltage is descending(after the magnet passes by and the voltage is dropping). When it is not in motion , no charging of the coil is happening.
Not trying to sway anyone to use the Pertronix , just want to help you guys understand why some prefer it over points.

This is very interesting and something I was not aware of. Thanks for sharing.

I recently restored my 68 FB 400 H.O. and I choose pertronix Ignitor just because I thought the 40,000 v was good for me since this is just for show and local cruises.

While assembling I would occasionally have the key on, not started and one day I noticed how hot the coil was. I thought to my self now that is not good for it so I'm always reminding myself not to do that.

Good point, and I hope that the little I did have it on I did not hurt the ignition.

If I were to replace later maybe the Ignitor II would be better just because of this.

Thanks

[8LUG]

http://www.lectriclimited.com/breakerless_se.htm You can use a stock coil and don't have to hide the second wire like the pertronix maybe that's why they keep coming out with improved models pertronix,pertronix 1,pertronix2

[MikeR64]

Now that I have read this thread, what is happening to my car makes sense. It recently started misfiring at 5,000 on first, 4,700 in second and I hadn't had time to mess with it to figure it out. To me it sounded like a weak spark issue. My Pertronix 1 is about 9 years old.. Guess I will try ordering one of the LectricLimited conversions and see what happens.
Thanks guys...

[grandville455]

Make sure when u put your new unit in, You use some thermal paste on the bottom too... When Mine went out and i removed it ,it was basically clean, could've been a factory thing as this is a complete flame thrower dist unit.

[jotrout]

Dick Boneske question above about the wiring. Was this answered? I'm checking into doing this conversion and I have this question also.

Thanks

[Dick Boneske]

Yes, an answer on the resistance wire would be nice. There are several different Pertronix kits. Which ones need 12 volts and which ones will work with the resistance wire?

We also need to know which, if any will work with the factory tachometer.

[jotrout]

I had an older Ignitor 1181 kit I got at a swap meet years ago and decided to install it tonight. The instructions seems simple enough and I did one on my 70 Corvette back in the day. 2 wires red & black. Black to the -ve side of the coil, red to the +ve. No start just spins. This is with the resistor wire in the harness as with the points setup.

I read on the forum that for the Ignitor 2 kit, constant +12v to be supplied to the -ve side of the coil with an extra wire. I'm gonna stop here and wait for additional feedback before continuing.

I thought to check for ground on the dizzy after folding up. But seems that it worked with the points so should be okay for this kit to.

I run an aftermarket tach so it is connected to the -ve on the coil. Someday I'll get around to getting the factory in-dash tach to work.

[rexs73gto]

I run the pert. I & I use the factory wiring on it for 30+ years & my car has a hood tach that runs right off the factory wires to make it work. The II III set up's work the very best with the full 12 volts. I believe the III has to have the full 12 volts to work correctly thou. The III has more functions & needs the full 12 volts for all of them to work the way it was designed.

[TCSGTO]

I've been running the Ignitor III for 3-4 years mainly for the rev limit feature. It's wired to a full 12V. I've had the Crane XR-I with a rev limiter on my AMX for 6-7 years. It runs with the resistance wire in place. Both have performed great so far but I keep a set of points/condenser in the glove box just in case.