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Aq131a pertronix no spark

J

jwest

New member
"have a new to me boat and bou

"have a new to me boat and bought and installed the pertronix ignitor kit with flamethrower coil and now I have no spark. Engine ran before allthough very hard to start (thats why I bought the pertronix).

What seems very strange to me is that one of the previous owners has changed some of the wiring around and now there was no wire running from the coil to the points. On the coil was the gray tach wire on the negative and the purple to the ignition. To the distributer was another purple wire plugged into a three way with condenser and the points. I unplugged these installed ignitor and ran the 2 wire off that to the coil hookup the tach wire and the purple to the positive and here we are. Ive jumped from the battery to the positive to the ignitor and nothing...new plugs and wires...nothing, rotor and cap look fairly new so I didnt replace them.

I chased the purple wire coming out of the distributer back to the harness connector off to the side of the engine where it doesnt look like it continues, looks to me (after looking at the wiring diagram in the volvo manual)like it somehow was switched around with the wire that was supposed to come off of the coil and made to work that way...???
I have just under 12 volts at the coil and everything seems to be hooked up right aside from the purple mystery wire that used to go to the distributer. Is there something I'm missing?... not really sure where to go from here. Any help or ideas would be great"
 
kinda thinking that the myster

kinda thinking that the mystery wire might tie into the tachometer wire somewhere possibly as my tachometer isnt working right (prior post "cant get much more than 20"). Not sure thats possible but thought that might tie the coil and distributer together.
 
"if anyone stumbles on this po

"if anyone stumbles on this post with a similar problem it turns out that instead of a points wire running strait from the distributor to the coil that sometimes a purple wire is ran from the distributor deadending at the harness plug connecting it to the tachometer wire (really looks like its factory instead of a previous owner dinkin around). So if you cant find the wire that may be it.

Also, as far as no spark my disributor wont ground unless firmly tightened. I have read on here to keep your distributor loose enough to turn while timing which is not allways possible unless you ground it out another way... (jumper to the block) here is a helpfull link for troubleshooting

http://www.vintageperformance.com/retrorockets/troubleshooting.htm"
 
"[b]"I unplugged these ins

""I unplugged these installed ignitor and ran the 2 wire off that to the coil hookup the <u>tach wire and the purple to the positive</u> and here we are. "

Joe, if memory serves me, the ignitor leads must go to the coil for both power and triggering connections. This eliminates some of the original circuits to a distributor using contact points!

The tachometer wire (light gray... sometimes white) will connect to the - side of the ignition coil.... not the + side!

The Pertronix Hall Effect ignitor "pick up unit" is very sensative to height adjustment as to properly align with the magnetic inducer within the rotor unit.... hence the shim that is usually included in the kit.
Check your instructions that pertain to this!

(I wish that a Reluctor unit (VR) was available for these engines instead of the Hall Effect!)

."
 
"thanks for responding, everyt

"thanks for responding, everything was hooked up correctly when I wrote that, sometimes my mind goes faster than my fingers. I have spark now (came down to a weak ground from distributer). I was very confused about the purple wire coming from the distributer into the harness as everything I've read on here and in the manual said there should be a black wire connecting directly to the coil. Which for some reason on mine it was wired to connect to the gray tachometer connection on the harness connector(not sure what to call it). I wrote the last post as a heads up to anyone who might have the same situation. I'm new to most of this so its been somewhat of a struggle to figure out.

Anyways all is good here, just have to do the timing."
 
"Joe, be sure to not only set

"Joe, be sure to not only set BASE advance, but to also check total advance. The spec will be in your OEM manual."
 
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