Going to install Pertronix Ignitor to my A14.

I have a few questions?

Heard a few people saying that the standard coil will be good.
Others say the ballast resistor need to be removed as it is only there to reduce volts to around 8v for the points.
Others have stated that you need a electronic ignition coil.

Who to believe? Any better help than these okes?

Pertronix suggest using there coil, well 40 000 Volts sounds good and it shines, but what is the real performance increase on a mild tuned motor? If you search around forums, everyone says MSD Blaster 2, but no one can actually state the pros & cons of a high performance/volt coil. It seems that people heard MSD is good and use it as a "I have a MSD coil, it is red and shines, your one is silver and dull" kind of approach.

Can someone state the real reason for using a high output coil and what the benefits is to a mild tuned motor?

If your points are set up well youll notice about nothing when fitting the Pertronix, BUT it does make maintance easier and cheaper once its fitted.

As far as coil, doesnt make much difference, most of what people claim is in their imagination, We tested 7 different coils way back on a mildly tuned 350cid and they were all within 1-2 hp of each other... now changing to a MSD CD or similar does make a noticable difference, especialy mid range and fuel consumption.

One thing to be very careful with is fitting a hard core low ohm coil (ie the blaster SS) to the pertronix, you land up having to run a massive ballast resistor (1.6ohm), if you dont youll pop the pertronix.

I would say for regular mild motor just run the pertronix on the stock coil unless it fails.

If i remember correctly the pertronix instructions say to leave the standard ballest resistor and the standard coil can also be retained. Speaking about coils, a lot of people do not like to use the standard type coil as they are oil filled and can leak. Newer style coils are more compact have greater output and not oil filled.

I toke an hallsensor from a vw with a vw ignition module and an normal elecronic(bosch)coil,just a bit of work but at the time it was all i could get

sparkyza1,

Is it possible to explain more in detail what you did.
Any wiring diagrams and part numbers will help.

Rezlo,

Thanks for the heads up, glad to see someone agrees with my "It's red and shines" theory about a high output coil. Had a chat with a clubmans racer over the weekend, he suggest a VW Bosch coil, majority of the clubmans racers use those, as it doesn't cause problems, they are running highly tuned motors in the 140-160kw range.

I have a Pertronix ignitor running the standard coil. I can't remember if I removed the balast resistor, I will have to double check. But I am running the standard coil. No problems and I have picked up the car idle's more smooth and a little better fuel consumption and power more stable at higher revs. I would definitely recommend it.

1200GXman,

Please let me know about the ballast resistor?

The coil and ballast resistor are a matched set. It has nothing to do with the Pertronix

* If your coil requires a ballast resistor, keep it.
* If your coil never used a ballast resistor, don't add one.

Just make sure your Pertronix can use a straight 12V coil, which draws more current and will burn out the lesser Pertronix unit. Some Pertronix kits can, others cannot. Read the instructions to know for sure. If your Pertronix requies a coil with ballast resistor, get a matched set (coil + resistor). Don't add a resistor to a high energy coil.

Update:
Yes, mine is connected to the ballast resistor.