Pertronix ignitor in '55 Ford car

[Daves55Sedan]

I know, you will be SHOCKED to hear that I converted my '55 Ford ignition to Pertronix.
I must have seven or eight sets of burned out points in a box; each had been filed many times and re-used for many,many years. I knew this set was on its last leg, and finally this morning, it took three cranks to get her started. After installing the Pertronix ignitor, she fired up instantly on the first crank.
At first, I thought I would remove the dizzy altogether, but I hate having to put it back in. I can never get the gear to engage in the same position it came out. So I decided to leave the dizzy in the engine. It was necessary for me to wear my reading glasses through the entire operation as my eyesight ain't what it used to be. My engine has the original load-o-matic distributor, which is much more shallow than the later dizzy's.
After removing the points and condenser and the wire to the coil, I wiped the breaker plate and cam clean as suggested in the installation instructions. I got a length of solid 22 gage copper wire and wrapped a little of it around the ignitor wires to use as a guide to pull the wires thru the hole in the side of the dizzy below the breaker plate. I thought I would have more trouble worming the wire thru the hole, but it wasn't that bad. As soon as the ignitor wires cam thru the hole, my guide wire came off, so I got lucky. I was able to grab the wires with my fingers and pull them thru the hole. You need to be real careful not to use the wires themselves to pull the rubber seal into the hole, because the wires will tend to pull thru the seal making them tighten underneath the breaker plate. Consequently, I elected not to attempt to get the seal to snap into place fully, but theres enough rubber sqeezed thru the hole that it will not move.
The ignitor mounting plate was a perfect fit, without the need to do any filing or drill any holes. The unit was shipped with nice mounting screws. There is no adjustment required with this model. You simply align the ignitor mounting plate so that the three holes on the left end of the plate match with the features of the dizzy breaker plate and screw it down. Then, the magnet slips down over the cam. Jiggle the magnet a little bit to align the magnet with the cam high points before pressing the magnet down over the cam.
Since this is a 6-volt positive ground system, the wiring is a little differnt than with the 12 volt units. The ingitor has two wires. One wire connects directly to the "start" wire (formerly connected to the negative terminal at the coil. The second wire from the ignitor connects to the negative terminal at the coil now.
In the event that I might ever need to switch back to points and condenser in an emergency, I decided NOT to snip off my ring tongue terminal at the "start" wire. I made a insulated standoff for attaching the ignitor wire to the start wire and used a machine screw, nut and lockwasher to attach it to a factory hole at the flange where the cowl meets the firewall, just above the heater duct. The material I used was a piece of 1/8 inch masonite, cut 1/2 inch wide x 1-1/2 inch long with two holes drilled in it. One for mounting at the cowl, and the other to accept a # 8 machine screw with flatwashers, lockwasher and nut to use for attaching the ring tongue terminals of the two wires.
Now it is necessary to make a new wire for connected the positive side of the coil to ground somewhere. I found a length of 14 gage wire with a properly sized ring tongue terminal already on one end for connecting to the coil. (I keep a large box of automotive wiring in the garage). I added a larger size terminal at the other end of the wire for connecting to the existing ground lug at the firewall, which is connected to the engine.
My rotor was in pretty bad shape. I used a small wire brush and crocus cloth to shine up the electrode which makes contact with the dizzy cap towers. The underside of the towers looked okay. Put the cap back on and it was finished. The engine started immediately on the first crank. I jumped out and checked the timing with an inductive timing light. She was right on the money.
The engine starts more quickly and runs as good as ever. The whole installation only took me about two hours and that was with the dizzy still in the engine. That time includes messing around making the little standoff bracket for the wires, hunting thru scraps of wire for a wire long enough for my ground connection, sifting thru my box of electric wiring accessories for suitable wire terminals AND getting all the tools put back away.
Tools I used: 5/16 wrench for removing wire from points, 3/8" nutdriver for removing coil wires, two straitblade screwdrivers, one long and one short for removal of points/condenser & installation of the ignitor, one piece of solid 22 gage pull/guide wire, jigsaw for cutting out masonite, stone grinder for grinding masonite corners smoothe and rounded, drill and 1/8 inch bit for drilling holes in masonite, one combination wire-stripper/snips and terminal crimper, 11/32 inch nutdriver for attaching standoff bracket to cowl and for connecting ignitor and "start" wires to the standoff.

[Motorhead6]

Make sure you keep the points, instructions, et al in a box in the trunk. When the Pertonix fails (and it will) and you are on the road, you can quickly replace the Pertronix temporarily to get you back home. The 12 volt Pertronix has been upgraded a couple of times (hence Pertrinix II) but the 6 volt one has apparently not been upgraded to improve reliability.

Keep in mind also, that if the battery ever draws down just a little, there will not be enough juice to the unit to activate that Pertronix unit and it will not start. Been there, done that. Per the Pertronix Tech, the unit requires 5.2 volts at the unit under starting conditions to activate; a 6 volt battery under starting is marginal even when fully charged. Be sure your cables are in pristine condition and terminals are cleaned on a regular basis.

I removed my Pertronix and went back to points. I don't mean to discourage you, just be prepared in case you run into the problems I did.

[Y-Blockhead]

Dave, DON"T leave your key in the on position when the car is not running You WILL burn up your Pertronix I. This has been rectified in the Pertronix II and III.

I had used a Pertronix I for years to trigger my MSD 6A. Worked fantastic, never a problem. Until one day "somebody" forgot to pull the fuse on the wire going to the ignition while doing electrical work and burned up the Pertronix I.

Replaced the Pertronix I with a Pertronix III. The III has a nifty adjustable REV limiter and multi spark (like the MSD) built in so I removed the MSD Box. Much cleaner installation and sold the MSD 6A on e-pay to help cover the costs of "the only mistake I have ever made"...

[Daves55Sedan]

I'm fully aware of the problem that can be caused by leaving the ignition key on with the engine not running. What I can't figure out is why anybody would do that.
I did pick out a halfway decent set of points and worked on them some more with a mini-file. I placed them, the condenser. the original screws and the original coil wire in the little box the Pertronix ignitor came in and I will store it in the glove compartment. Don't know what good it will do. I never carry an ounce of tools in the car.
For the time being, my generating system and battery are in good condition. Battery came from Rural King. It seems to be a good one. Gen is not overcharging, so there is never any corrosion at the battery terminals. I am in the habit of disconnecting the batt cables and cleaning them and the batt terminals at least annually.
Can anyone tell me what the life expectancy of the 6-volt Pertronix might be if it is used 60 miles a day, 5 days a week to the end of time?

[Paul H]

I can't tell you about the life expectancy of a 6 volt unit,but I had an original Pertronix that I used in 5 different Fords for over thirty years,amassing over 300,000miles with no problem of any kind.At the time I first started using it I was a U-Haul dealer and service shop.All of the hundreds of their Ford trucks used Pertronix conversions for millions of miles.I don't know of any failures on these trucks.My original unit was still good until recently when I did just what you were cautioned against.I had some brain fade one evening and left the key on overnight.

[Y-Blockhead]

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Originally Posted by Daves55Sedan

I'm fully aware of the problem that can be caused by leaving the ignition key on with the engine not running. What I can't figure out is why anybody would do that.

Well SOMEBODY must have otherwise Pertronix wouldn't have "fixed" the problem on the later Ignitors...

[frank long island]

i put a pertronics in my 64 ranchero car was running fine i went to start it one day to have headliner installed didnt have enough power to climb onto a u haul dolly turns out the magnets from the dist. unit had come off was running on 3 cyl. replaced that and alls good now i also had this setup in my 55 merc 292 converted to 12 volts though never a problem in the 3 yrs i used the car

[Motorhead6]

The problems are with the 6 volt units. I agree that the later Pertronix seem to hold up much better, but they are the 12 volt units that have been upgraded. I don't mean to slam Pertronix, they make a great unit. The problem with the 6 volt unit is not so much that they fail as that they take a minimum amount of juice to fire off the unit under starting conditions and then there is never a buddy with 6 volts around when you need a jump.

Just my experience and it's worth just about what you paid me for it; nuttin'.

[hoss73ford]

In 1989 I had a 1950 Buick that kept burning out points, some at intervals of less than 500 miles. I had recently converted it to 12 volt. A parts man at NAPA who knew about old cars told me the reason was I didn't put in an inline resistor so I did that & the problem was solved.