56oldssuper88

Distributor was converted to a pertronix electronic unit and is using a pertronix coil. I have power to the coil on both sides but i am getting no spark. There is an orange wire with a plastic connector on it that comes out of the firewall in that area but I havent been able to determine what it is for. I am thinking that is my issue but idk. I was thinking it may be for some kind of resistor. Any help is aprreciated.

oldcutlass

Has it run with these parts installed up till now? Is this a new install? I have to ask, is the rotor installed?

Tedd Thompson

Have you checked with a volt meter that you are indeed getting a full 12 volts? Did you bypass the voltage drop down resister,although they will run on 8 volts some have a hard time starting. And x2 on the rotor being left out.

I would start by working backward with a volt meter and isolate where you lose your juice....Tedd

56oldssuper88

This car was a project I bought and it has not been run since before I bought it. But the motor is rebuilt and the previous owner installed the pertronix kit. There is a rotor on there. I checked the coil with a multimeter and I am getting 12 volts at the coil. But i noticed the negative side has juice too. Should the negative side be getting juice too? I even un hooked the wires on the negative side and it still gets juice when the pos. side is hooked up.

59-59-59

That orange wire in your first post could possibly be for the oil pressure switch or it could be a dirty yellow wire ( that looks kinda orange) going to one side of the resistor

56oldssuper88

Well it doesnt look too dirty and it has a plastic connector on it.

oldcutlass

You will read 12v on the negative side of the coil as it is looking for a ground to fire. Is there 12v on the positive side as you are cranking the engine?

It may be your pertronix is not wired correctly. I believe its a 2 wire connection for the distributor. Red goes to coil positive black goes to coil negative. There is I believe a yellow wire that runs from your starter to supply 12v during start to coil pos. And there should be a resistor wire that supplies approximately 8-10v during run. The resistor wire needs to be bypassed to get a full 12v @ run.

56oldssuper88

This is how I have it wired. Im going to try grounding the coil on this intake manifold because I was messing with it this morning and I believe the ground is my problem.

oldcutlass

Noooo, the grnd is supplied thru the pertronics. I think your pickup is faulty or not installed properly.

56oldssuper88

Ill have to take a look at it and see. Is there a way to bench test the pickup?

oldcutlass

I would pickup a points pack that has a condensor attached and swap out the pertronix for the time being, under $20 at the parts store. Run 1 wire to the points pack and crank it up.

oldsmobucket

i had a similar problem a while back afetr i reinstalled my motor seems as though when i took my dist. apart to clean and lubricate after years of not being serviced. when i reinstalled everything and tried to fire it up i had nothing long story short i had left out a small groung wire within the dist. above the breaker plate. as soon as i put it in it fired right up. just a thought just 2x check wiring within dist.

56oldssuper88

i may just replace the pertronix unit and see if that does the trick but for now the project is halted. My DD ('96 Lt-1 Camaro) just broke down. I had a misfire a couple of months ago and by the time i got to the nearest shop to have it scanned, the raw fuel over heated my cat and it went bad. I fixed that misfire, it turned out to be a faulty new outta the box plug wire. Now it just started misfiring again and it threw a P0300 code which is for random/multiple misfire. Money I got is getting tied up in this right now. I will keeping looking over the wiring in the olds though.