swapping points for Pertronix

Has anyone changed from points to Petronix system did it work ok .I am thinking about doing this with my 440.

Thank for any info

This forum is full of Pertronix users. If you would have done a search on "Pertronix" you would have spent half a day reading, most of it good.

Point-type ignitions have traditionally been limited by the amount of time the points can be kept closed, charging the coil. One trick Chrysler liked to use was dual points, adding a few degrees of dwell. Points also require maintenance and can be affected by physical wear from the rubbing and side thrust. Some mighty fast cars have run points, they just required more maintenance.
The Pertronix does little except remove points and condenser from your maintenance list and add dwell. Electronic ignitions in general have a higher "dwell" which keeps the coil at max charge higher in the rpm range. But unless your point-type ignition has problems you won't notice any effect from the conversion other than the placebo effect.

THE ONE THING wrong with a Pertronix conversion is that it doesn't automatically give you a high performance ignition curve. The high performance ignition curve will in nearly all cases make the engine feel like it has come alive. But unless you are like Blazin' Bob, you won't spend the time and/or dollars to recurve your stock type distributor, so you will miss out on much of the benefits you would have gained installing a new distributor with high performance curve.

So to sum it up, I have nothing against Pertronix conversions. Convert away. But before you do that, look at a reasonably priced high performance electronic distributor like the Firecore as an alternative to converting and recurving a stock distributor.

R.

I put a Petronix kit on my daily driver 340 '69 Dart back around 2003. Never any problems, and it still runs today! (except someone else owns it now)

I personally have never heard of any Petronix failures. Plus, since then they have come out with improved units P-II and P-III. The price is right, and I recommend that you purchase their coil too.

However, I just purchased an awesome ignition system @ www.4secondsflat.com. I say awesome even though I haven't installed it yet, but if you check it out, I think you'll agree. They offer the Petronix Flame Thrower coil with their unit, and it eliminates the factory ballast resistor.

My friend put one in his chevy and it worked fine for about 6 months. It died and he went back to points. I did read somewhere that they fail if you leave the key on (not running) for a period of time.

My stock distributor was worn out and I ended up getting a new pertronix billet distributor fpr the 440 in my 67..

I liked the idea of a bearing instead of a bushing on the top of the shaft.. Installed with a new pertronix coil, wired up the back of my ballast resistor for 12 volts and its never given me a problem since 08 after its resto...

In 73-74 I had nothing but troubles in my A12 car with its stock dual point and the Accel dual point I purchased for it.. Grant it, I was in High school and it was mostly "operator error back then"...
Did not want to go there again...

Correct: that and do not continually try to get away with a weak battery in the car, as it will also kill the unit (personal experience).

I have 2 cars with Pertronix- one for 15 years and the other for 4.

User their coil
Bypass the resistor
Don't leave the key on/not running (at least for P1/PII units)
Don't stress it with low voltage

Follow these points and you'll be fine. If you need a recurve (highly recommended), then get the plate from 4secondsflat: with a little research here and a few hours in the shop you can do it yourself.

A P swap requires a dist with minimal bushing side play (& never hurts to shim the axial end play to .005" at the lower collar). As you know point dizzys wear more from the flat spring tension over time. AutoZone has em for real cheap or Lowes has the bushings and a 15/32" to 17/32" adjustable reamer is needed to size em (~$20 at Grainger iirc) to fit

On a car i used to have, an extra hot coil prematurely killed a hidden-in-distributor perktronix module. bought the right coil, and new module and it ran 100% perfect with no timing adjustment. awesome first hand experience. this was a 275hp SBF that didn't need a large ignition controller.

for people with crank triggers or magnetos, msd might have better integration

msd bragged for years about multi-spark feature. then (perktronix) second strike came out saying they're good well beyond 3000 rpm but others (like msd) are not. I recall summit putting second strike to a test, and had to report both msd and summit's in-house multi-spark box were inferior. they figured oh well, we make money selling perktronix too.

My (personal) preference: OE electronic dist. HEI module mounted under dist. Any coil I have stashed (E coil would be my pref if buying new). No ballast

I run a Pertronix Ignighter/flamethrower coil in my 318 since 94. I have had it in about 4 reman-dist over the yrs due to bushing wear only.

I have the BR by-passed for full 12 volts to the flamethrower 40,000 volt chrome coil that has been mounted vertical and horizontal for yrs with no leaks.

not bad for 120$ and 20 yrs of flawless service from it.

I have the Pertronix IgnitorIII distributor in my BB low deck with Eddy heads, it was a nightmare getting the distributor to clear the head but it's been in there for a few months and runs perfect.

I don't like the rev limiter, it kicks in 800 RPM too early so I had to set it higher, and it is hard to set, you have to mess with the little screwdriver knob forever to find the setting you want. I'm considering buying the Pertronix600 rev limit box, it's about $135 but the settings are much easier to do and with it being hardwired into the car I would hope it would be more accurate.

I installed a Raptor shift light also and my tachometer matches the shift light perfectly so I don't think it's my tach.