Pertronix wiring help needed.

[derotoreut]

I'm installing a Pertronix Ignitor II and Flame Thrower II coil in my 1970 K10. I thought it would be a straight forward install. I came across a weird situation with my distributor feed wire. I was expecting a resistance wire to go from the engine side of the fuse block to the positive side of the coil. What I found was a 12 ga pink wire originating in the cab, at the Ign Unfused lug on the fuse box up toward the back of the gauge cluster where it seems to land on a terminal that I can't see. Then from a terminal right next to it, a 12 ga brown wire comes down and goes through a grommet in the firewall, right to the positive side of the coil.

It seems that someone changed the stock wiring to the coil. What I wanted to do was trace the original resistance wire back to the firewall and replace it with a 12 ga wire, but now I'm not sure what to do. I know the Pertronix needs a dedicated 12 volt ignition feed wire. My concern is that I don't know where the wire coming from the Ign Unfused connection goes to up behind the gauge cluster (above the steering column) without pulling that whole thing apart. Would anyone have any idea? I don't want to just eliminate it without knowing what it is landing on.

I also had the yellow wire on the positive side of the coil and also on the starter, that I disconnected. I believe this is the normal procedure as it would no longer be needed.

I'm also wondering if there is supposed to be a short jumper ground wire in the distributor that goes from the bottom of the distributor to the breaker plate? I have heard that sometimes they are there, but I don't see one in my distributor.

[rsavage]

Dan,
I am up at the st Lawrence right now. I have manuals with wiring diagrams I can loan you when I get back home Monday.
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[davischevy]

The pink wire and brown wire you speak of are your Tachometer feed.

RE: your concerns about the dedicated circuit for the Pertronix. I have I had a Pertronix on my C10 for years. I used the factory positive feed with no problem. As long as it has constant 12 volts it will be fine, and the factory feed will provide 12 volts.

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by davischevy

The pink wire and brown wire you speak of are your Tachometer feed.

RE: your concerns about the dedicated circuit for the Pertronix. I have I had a Pertronix on my C10 for years. I used the factory positive feed with no problem. As long as it has constant 12 volts it will be fine, and the factory feed will provide 12 volts.

Oh OK. Good call on the tach. Then where is the stock feed coming from? The yellow wire? The only two wires connected to the coil + were the brown (tach feed) and yellow. Isn't the tach supposed to go to the - side of the coil?

['68OrangeSunshine]

There should have been a Black wire with 2 terminals, about 2.5" long, to ground the ''ignitor''[*] plate to the Distributor assembly. Red and Black leads come out of the Ignitor II pickup module: Red to Coil (+) and Black to Coil (-). A full 12 VDC line should also terminate to the Coil (+).
[* "Ignitor" since there's no breaker plate anymore.]

Pertronix website is: www.pertronix.com
Their Tech Line is:800/827-3758

Since you have an automatic truck, your hot lead probably goes thru a neutral safety switch.

The 20 Yellow wire gets its power from the 20 White/Orange/Purple originating in the bulkhead connector. This is a resistor wire and starts out flowing a full 12 VDC, until it warms up and then drops to 7 - 9 VDC. It is best to re-route around it. Rather than deal with little Packard connector terminals in the bulkhead connector, I just ran a 12 ga. wire from IGN UNFUSED. [Mine happens to be orange, since I had a run of 12 ga. in that color]. The other side of the 20 Yellow still has to be connected to the starter solenoid.

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

There should have been a Black wire with 2 terminals, about 2.5" long, to ground the ''ignitor''[*] plate to the Distributor assembly. Red and Black leads come out of the Ignitor II pickup module: Red to Coil (+) and Black to Coil (-). A full 12 VDC line should also terminate to the Coil (+).
[* "Ignitor" since there's no breaker plate anymore.]

Pertronix website is: www.pertronix.com
Their Tech Line is:800/827-3758

Since you have an automatic truck, your hot lead probably goes thru a neutral safety switch.

The 20 Yellow wire gets its power from the 20 White/Orange/Purple originating in the bulkhead connector. This is a resistor wire and starts out flowing a full 12 VDC, until it warms up and then drops to 7 - 9 VDC. It is best to re-route around it. Rather than deal with little Packard connector terminals in the bulkhead connector, I just ran a 12 ga. wire from IGN UNFUSED. [Mine happens to be orange, since I had a run of 12 ga. in that color]. The other side of the 20 Yellow still has to be connected to the starter solenoid.

X2. This is the recommended way.

That said, I have three vehicles with Pertronix, all run thru the original resistor wire with no problems.

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

There should have been a Black wire with 2 terminals, about 2.5" long, to ground the ''ignitor''[*] plate to the Distributor assembly. Red and Black leads come out of the Ignitor II pickup module: Red to Coil (+) and Black to Coil (-). A full 12 VDC line should also terminate to the Coil (+).
[* "Ignitor" since there's no breaker plate anymore.]

Pertronix website is: www.pertronix.com
Their Tech Line is:800/827-3758

Since you have an automatic truck, your hot lead probably goes thru a neutral safety switch.

The 20 Yellow wire gets its power from the 20 White/Orange/Purple originating in the bulkhead connector. This is a resistor wire and starts out flowing a full 12 VDC, until it warms up and then drops to 7 - 9 VDC. It is best to re-route around it. Rather than deal with little Packard connector terminals in the bulkhead connector, I just ran a 12 ga. wire from IGN UNFUSED. [Mine happens to be orange, since I had a run of 12 ga. in that color]. The other side of the 20 Yellow still has to be connected to the starter solenoid.

I was expecting a short ground wire going from the distributor to the breaker plate, but there wasn't one. Not sure if I need this or not?

If I connect a dedicated 12V feed wire to the + coil, why does the other side of the 20 yellow wire still need to be connected to the starter solenoid? The Yellow wire (20 Y) feeds the coil from the "R" terminal on the solenoid. I thought that during startup the solenoid internally shorts the "B" to the "R" and the 20Y is fed directly from the battery cable. Then when running, the solenoid releases and the "R" terminal becomes just a junction to connect the 20 W/O/PPl to the 20Y. What am I missing? When you install an HEI you put full 12V power to the "BAT" terminal on the HEI and do not require the 20Y wire on the "R" terminal. Only the 16PPL wire is needed to the "S" solenoid connection. What is different?

[derotoreut]

Here is a portion of a wiring diagram that shows it. Help me out, because I'm not sure what I'm missing here. I thought I could disconnect both the 20Y at the coil and starter if I was running a dedicated 12V wire to the + coil.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Here's Pertronix's diagram for the Ignitor II install. Pretty sure the short black jumper from the pickup plate to the distributor body is necessary. You could fab your own with a 2 or 3" piece of 20 gauge wire and eyelet terminals on the ends. Or just tin them, with a curve, before the solder cools.
As to the other issue about the other end of the 20 Y, I'll shoot pix of my install and see what I did. [It was 8 years ago, so it's not fresh in memory.]
Sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate the image.

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Here's Pertronix's diagram for the Ignitor II install. Pretty sure the short black jumper from the pickup plate to the distributor body is necessary. You could fab your own with a 2 or 3" piece of 20 gauge wire and eyelet terminals on the ends. Or just tin them, with a curve, before the solder cools.
As to the other issue about the other end of the 20 Y, I'll shoot pix of my install and see what I did. [It was 8 years ago, so it's not fresh in memory.]
Sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate the image.

I tend to agree with you. I would believe the jumper ground wire is there to assure the points or Ignitor get a good ground from the breaker plate to distributor.

As far as the 20Y wire connection to the solenoid is concerned, I studied this in detail and I'm convinced that it's not required. Or at least that's what I convinced myself. It won't hurt anything if it's still landed on the "R" terminal. All it will do is during starting, the solenoid will send 12V to that wire and in turn try to send 12V to the coil. As long as the 20Y at the coil is disconnected and taped, it won't go any where. Just keep in mind if the original resistance wire is still connected to the ignition and bypassed with a dedicated 12V to the coil, that resistance wire will still have a reduced voltage (around 7 volts or so) on it when the truck is running.

This set up should be just like installing an HEI. In the case of an HEI, there is only a 12V line going to the "BAT" terminal on the distributor and the 20 yellow wire is not required. Only the purple wire is needed at the "B" connector on the solenoid. As a matter of fact, many new mini starters don't even have the "R" terminal on them.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Yeah, It'll work. I just tried it. I disconnected the 20 Y from the solenoid terminal -- it didn't start. Then I reconnected and it didn't start again.[!!?] After an hour spent finding and fitting on a new red Positive battery terminal, it did start again. Testing again w/o the 20 Y on the starter solenoid, it did start and run. So I guess you don't need it. I put mine back the way it was. I have left all the old wiring for the points in place, just taped-off, in case I'm in the back of no where and the spinning object in the sky messes up my PERTRONIX -- so I can put points back in and try to get away.

PICs of solenoid and coil connections. [White wire is for Tach, Orange is from IGN UNFUSED].

PS: Good thing I went out to make this check, since I caught a bad battery terminal, and also found rats had been chewing on my 20Y at the solenoid. They don't like Dip-It Spray On Tape, so I zapped it with that and then reinsulated the connections.

[derotoreut]

I assume the orange wire is a dedicated 12V wire to the fuse box (Ign Unfused) or spliced into the ignition wire?

I just finished my install and it works OK. I left the resistance wire in place and just removed and taped the 20Y at the coil. I also removed the 20Y at the solenoid, but I may do like you did and just reconnect it to the "R" terminal. It won't hurt any thing, plus it would make it easier to go back to the original configuration in a pinch.

I ran a dedicated 12V wire from the fuse box "Ign Unfused" to the coil + terminal. I connected the Ignitor red wire to coil + terminal too. The coil - terminal has the black Ignitor wire and my factory tach wire connected to it. So far so good.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Yeah, as stated in Post #11. 12 Orange is 12VDC from IGN UNFUSED.
Did you fab a short jumper from the plate to the distributor body?

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Yeah, as stated in Post #11. 12 Orange is 12VDC from IGN UNFUSED.
Did you fab a short jumper from the plate to the distributor body?

No I didn't. It never had one before, so I thought I would try it without. So far so good. I think eventually I will put one in though.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Was yours a new kit, swap meet find or junkyard trophy?

[derotoreut]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Was yours a new kit, swap meet find or junkyard trophy?

My Pertronix parts? New from Streetside Auto. Did a search and they had best price with no shipping charges or tax.

Pertronix 45011 - Coil Ignition: Extreme Series; Black; oil filled; $34.95
Pertronix 91181 - IGNITION KIT - Ignitor II Delco 8 cyl; $82.95

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by derotoreut

My Pertronix parts? New from Streetside Auto. Did a search and they had best price with no shipping charges or tax.

Pertronix 45011 - Coil Ignition: Extreme Series; Black; oil filled; $34.95
Pertronix 91181 - IGNITION KIT - Ignitor II Delco 8 cyl; $82.95

Good prices. You should call or email Pertronix Tech Support. They should have included that jumper in your kit. I'm sure they will send you one for free if you tell them it was missing.