fitting a Pertronix to a GQ

[ledgno1]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of purchasing a Pertronix and believe that in order to fit it there is some machining of the shaft required?

What's peoples experience with this - can it be done a home without needing a lathe, or is it something best left to a competent mechanic - if so how much have people paid to get this done:?:

Also has anyone got any pics of a complete setup

And finally have people found that it improves gas consumption at all

Cheers

[mudmav]

hey mate no machinging is required you can fit yourself allthouth i had my mechanic fit mine as he supplied it. didnt improve economy much maybe a little but picked up some power and revs more freely know. also idles alot better. overall great little unit.

[ledgno1]

Thanks mudmav - what year model is yours?

If there's no machining (other posts say there is ) then I'll be ordering one straight away

[blkmav]

http://www.ontrack4x4.com.au/index_files/Page545.htm

[hottiemonster]

Thanks mudmav - what year model is yours?

If there's no machining (other posts say there is ) then I'll be ordering one straight away

you might have to machine a ring off on the distributor shaft.

[CanberraMav]

When i installed mine i had to lightly grind down the cam in the distributer.

To do the job easily take out your dissy.

Dissasemble and grind down cam if needed. There is a magnetic ring in the Pertronix kit that sits over this cam. If you can get it to fit over it then i guess you dont need to grind anything.

I used a bench grinder which worked well. If you have a dremel or something it could save you pulling the shaft out to do the grinding.

I found the kit to be really good and easy to install.

[mudmav]

mines an 89 swb

[ledgno1]

Thanks for all the info guys - guess I'll grab one and see just how much material needs removing...

I do have a dremel equivilant so hopefully that'll be enough - better still hopefully it'll fit without any mods

[rOd]

Thanks for all the info guys - guess I'll grab one and see just how much material needs removing...

I do have a dremel equivilant so hopefully that'll be enough - better still hopefully it'll fit without any mods

Who will you be buying it from mate?

Because Im after a supplier to buy one from in Sydney.

[patrol42]

ledgno1, could you keep us posted with how it went, whether you had to grind anything or not.

cheers

[ledgno1]

Hey rod,

I'm gonna order mine from here:

Pro Quip International
PH: 03 9761 1110
FAX: 03 9761 1565


Cheers

[RN]

I think I got mine from there too.

Shaft had to be machined slightly.

Never backfires, reliable

[rOd]

Hey rod,

I'm gonna order mine from here:

Pro Quip International
PH: 03 9761 1110
FAX: 03 9761 1565


Cheers

Thanks.

[JeSTeROCK]

Take out the dissy

Pull the cap and button off

Undo the screw in middle / top of the shaft under the rotor and the shaft should come out

You have to machine / grind down a flange that is on the shaft, only a couple of mm all the way around, so that the new sensor can fit over the top of the flange (too many flanges, i sound like rodney rude)

Did mine on a bench grinder... your hands get a little warm

got mine from ontrack in melbourne i think, they sent me some photo's via email

[ledgno1]

Hey JeSTeROCK,

Thanks for the info - I'm gonna try and do the job with it on the car as I don't have a bench grinder

I do have a dremel like tool with grinding wheels and if it's only a couple of mm all round I need I'm hoping that'll do the job

I will let everyone know how it goes - I put new points in the other day as the others were absolutely stuffed and it still doesn't idle well - so fingers crossed this will fix it

[JeSTeROCK]

This is what the ground down flange should look like, the cam is just below it





Top arrow - where the screw for the shaft is, easy as to pull out
Bottom arrow - this has to fit over the flange (encloses 6 magnets that the sensor picks up)



Spacer that rotor sits on

[ledgno1]

Thanks heaps for the photo's mate.

Did mine tonight and used the dremel tool which worked well however took quite a while to get ground down

Unfortunately it is still missing badly so for all my efforts it hasn't solved my problems

The plugs are only 10k old and were the lower temp one, plugs are again only 10k also and my coil is a MSD blaster 2 coil which is only 3k old....

So if I can't figure it out in the next couple of days it'll have to be back to the gas shop for a dyno run and check I guess - more money!

[viperguy]

check ur dizzy shaft for play. had this problem with mine when it was missing before goin to custom stuff..

[rOd]

Thanks heaps for the photo's mate.

Did mine tonight and used the dremel tool which worked well however took quite a while to get ground down

Unfortunately it is still missing badly so for all my efforts it hasn't solved my problems

The plugs are only 10k old and were the lower temp one, plugs are again only 10k also and my coil is a MSD blaster 2 coil which is only 3k old....

So if I can't figure it out in the next couple of days it'll have to be back to the gas shop for a dyno run and check I guess - more money!

Hi ledgno1,

I think the only simple and reliable fix to misfiring is an extended rotor button which Performance Ignitions sell.
It solved mine anyway.

[ledgno1]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, a little update on the problem.

This morning when driving into work I confirmed two things:

1) It only starts to idle badly once it warms up - prior to that it's pretty smooth, or that the miss is so minor that it's not noticible.
2) It's now missing badly under load, almost as though it's going down to what feels like 3 or 4 cylinders…..which makes driving in traffic somewhat dangerous

Any ideas, clearly it's not the points now, so what next?

[jessie928]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, a little update on the problem.

This morning when driving into work I confirmed two things:

1) It only starts to idle badly once it warms up - prior to that it's pretty smooth, or that the miss is so minor that it's not noticible.
2) It's now missing badly under load, almost as though it's going down to what feels like 3 or 4 cylinders…..which makes driving in traffic somewhat dangerous

Any ideas, clearly it's not the points now, so what next?

sounds like it could be your coil is breaking down after it warms up, did you change the coil? swap it with another coil. ( i know you said its new)

failing that, check your converter for water leak
check your diapham in the mixer.
are you loosing coolant? are you getting water out the exhaust, you could have a blown head gasket or cracked head.

spark plugs, did you replace them and your leads?

dont ever assume that what you put in yesterday is good today when confronted with a new problem. I once trashed 6 brand new plugs in a chev overnight, at the same time !!!

[ledgno1]

Yep - it's got an MSD Blaster 2 in it which is only about 4 months old.

Whatever it is it seems to be getting affected by heat...

[JeSTeROCK]

I used the crappy old standard nissan coil with mine. Ontrack recommended that i use the standard coil with the petronix.

I also use the extended rotor button from ontrack. I have read that this is not needed with the petronix ignitor but i thought it couldn't hurt.

Changed my leads, just cheap top guns or eagle's, can't remember.

Also doesn't hurt to clean your distributor cap with wd40 or like, check for cracks.

Check for vacuum leaks

What spark plug gap are you running ?

[ledgno1]

Thanks Jesterock,

I'm gonna check plugs and leads tonight, then if I fail from there it's off to the mechanic's for diagnosis.....

I've looked for vaccum leaks but as you probably know they can be almost impossible to find sometimes, my experience is you find them when looking or fixing something else

As for plug gap - I am running them at 0.7mm.

Cheers

[bilby]

Thanks Jesterock,

I'm gonna check plugs and leads tonight, then if I fail from there it's off to the mechanic's for diagnosis.....

I've looked for vaccum leaks but as you probably know they can be almost impossible to find sometimes, my experience is you find them when looking or fixing something else

As for plug gap - I am running them at 0.7mm.

Cheers

easiest way to check for vaccum leaks is have car running and spray wd-40 arond base of carby / vaccum lines etc.. ONE AT A TIME !!! the engine idle speed will increase when it sucks the wd-40 in to the combustion chambers
after a minute it will drop to normal again , spray area again and if it increases again ... theres ya vaccum leak

[ledgno1]

Thanks bilby - I'll try it tonight whilst checking the plugs and leads

Just out of interest what gaps does everyone recommend I've heard some people say 0.6 where as others have said 1.1

[gqroo]

I had same prob with backfire and missing ended up being coil lead burnt out at one end make sure you check them thoroughly as for gap 0.8 I think I decided
cheers Lou.

[ledgno1]

Thanks - I have an old set that I might throw in (bar the one that was stuffed last time) and see how it runs....

[ledgno1]

Update on my GQ's poor idle and mis-fire.

Took the car to the mechanic today who's diagnosis is that the engine has very low vaccum pressure suggesting that my tappets need adjusting due to some valve seat recession. The new head has been on for about 13,000ks so they believe that it's "settled" in and now simply needs adjusting…..

Anyone else had similar experiences???

[bilby]

Update on my GQ's poor idle and mis-fire.

Took the car to the mechanic today who's diagnosis is that the engine has very low vaccum pressure suggesting that my tappets need adjusting due to some valve seat recession. The new head has been on for about 13,000ks so they believe that it's "settled" in and now simply needs adjusting…..

Anyone else had similar experiences???

you'd here them if they were not tight enough
did the head ever get re-torqued after it was at running temp ?

and re torqued after 1000k's ???

unless they used so called monotorque gaskets
i always used to re check mine after 1000ks with the 383 chev

the engine has very low vaccum pressure ???

by this a compession test was done you mean ????
( he pull aplug and crank over without coil lead on and gauge in that plughole )