what is the purpose of the switched 9 volt. can i run it straight to 12 volt? going to be running crane cams xr1 points conversion. also in the same area there is a wire running to an oil pressure sensor??? any way mice got a hold of those 2 wires and now i have to differentiate which goes where..ou:
the other day I called the jerk at crane and I mean jerk, after a hard time is said you need to keep it at 9 volts like stock else you would burn there unit out just like you would burn your points out. my car came with the crane but pertronix is better will change over.
Here is the instalation instruction for crane xr-i I see that it's now + from the coil,i have a crane xr-i for a few years now and in mine instruction they say to get the + before the ballast resistor!!!! Here is mine instruction I have an external ballast resistor because my resistance wire burned down about 7 years ago,so i switched to an external one. But yes you have to have the 9 volts for the coil,if that's what you're asking
hey Dutch Wildcat Where did you mount the external resistor? I'm not confident in my resistor wire, and will probably add the external one. I have the one thats recommended on the crane XR-i instructions. Small white ceramic. Does it get really hot?
I installed the ballast resistor in the engine bay on the firewall close to the coil. I had to remove the ignition switch to remove the old resistor wire,it went from the switch to the fire wall under the dash!!! One more thing i noticed when my resistor wire went bad,my ignition switch got very hot. In the pic you can see it just behind the air cleaner,it came from an opel kadett,so it's a little smaller than a chrysler style resistor,but it's 1.8 ohms.
Thanks man... I will mount mine somewhere similar. I was worried where to mount it because I hooked it up to a battery and a convertible top pump that I had laying around to create a draw on it and it turned red hot! Maybe the pump was too much draw on it. By the way, are you running propane through that hose at the top of the air cleaner cover?
Yes inside the aircleaner is a impco 300 mixer and it gets it l.p.g fed with that hose from the converter that's behind the airconditioning pump. I can also drive on normal fuel if i have to.
Jake, You have to run a resister in the circuit to keep from burning up the ign coil. It wont handel 12v. all the time. And Yes you can wire it straight if you keep it down to a few minutes of duration. Doing this gives a lot stronger spark. This is an old street rat speed secret. [done by old street rats like myself] i used to have a toggle switch that went to the hot side of the coil and to the switch pitch. When I flipped it the sw. pitch and the hotter ign would come on at the same time. Need to put an indicater light on it though so you dont burn up the coil.
So on a Pertronix coil, I am told I need to run 12 volts directly to in (unresisted) so it can supply the proper spark voltage to my new solid state Pertronix ignition. According to this thread, I interpret that you guys are saying no, I should leave the resisted wire hooked up as normal. I am confused. Also, there's a black and red wire that now comes out of my distributor. I hooked the black up to neg coil stud, and the red to pos. Should I just hook the red of the distributor up to a 12 volt resited supply of the coil or should I indeed eliminate the resisted wire and use full 12 volts at this coil?
Not sure about pertronix But the instructions with the Crane kit, say to use the resistance wire, and if you dont have one, to put a resistor inline.
If you have converted to a electronic trigger system such as Pertronix , crane or mallory ,,,, you follow thier instructions.... the straight wire to the coil trick is for points only system..... my pertronix doesnt use a resister.... but the wire that goes to the unit feels suspiciously like the resister wire that is on a delco dist.....:Brow:
I am running a Crane XR1 with a Ballast resistor just like the picture shows. Works great. I like the built in rev limiter feature in this unit, and why I prefer it over the Pertronix for the price. t does get hot though. I have wondered with the resistance load, what the long term affects really is on my alternator/voltage regulator, not to mention the wasted energy. I have read in other posts of others using Pertronix that a reistance wire or ballast resistor is not needed. Do a search. Erik
It's actually that it is not "desired" because it supplies lower votage while the engine is running that the Pertronix ignition likes more voltage during run, like 12v versus the resisted 9 volts which it would get if you didn't bypass the original resisted wire. This is how I understand it. The only thing I don't understand it that my olds points I don't think had a black and red wire coming out of it from under the dist. cap like the Pertronix unit does - Should I connect these to the coil? I thought it gets the power from the big coil wire that plugs into the top middle of the cap?
Ken, Think of the coil as a transformer. It steps up the battery voltage to a level that can jump the sparkplug gap. The coil consists of primary windings surrounded by secondary windings. The secondary windings are thinner and more numerous than the primary windings. When voltage is applied to the coil, electricity flows to the primary windings. As a result, a magnetic field is generated around the primary windings. When the flow of electricity is interrupted, the magnetic field collapses and induces a high voltage in the secondary windings. This higher voltage is fed through the coil wire to the center of the distributor cap where it is then distributed by the rotor, to the proper cylinder plug wire. The points are nothing more than a switch. When the points are closed, the coil is energized, when they open, it de-energizes and a spark is produced. The Pertronix module takes the place of the points. The points don't need two wires like the Pertronix. When the points close, they supply a ground for battery voltage applied to the + terminal of the coil. Simple as that. As far as Pertronix goes, their instructions are very ambiguous. I can't tell whether they recommend constant 12 volts or a resistance. It doesn't sound like their tech people know either. I don't understand what the big deal is about points. People seem to think that electronic ignition is going to give them more power. Guess what?, it won't. A proper functioning points system is all you need for a stock engine. GM points replacement and adjustment is easy. Points are very reliable. When you step up from stock, and you have a high performance cam, and a jetted carburetor, and you want to turn higher RPM's, an aftermarket ignition system will give you better driveabilty and allow the use of bigger gaps as well as keep the plugs cleaner. If it was me, and I wanted to step up from points, I'd buy a trusted MSD 6AL and trigger it with the points. Under those conditions, the points carry very little current, so they will last forever, and you get all the advantages of the MSD capacitative discharge system.
I will CERTAINLY consider doing this Larry. As you can see, everything I have learned about ignition I have found from this thread. ou:
