[Healeys] Petronics

[Earl Kagna]

James:

On some distributors where the shaft clearance - the distance between the 
top of the rotor and the bottom of the centre dome of the distributor cap is 
on the tight side (possibly because the distibutor has been re-bushed), the 
addition of the magnet ring of the Pertronix raises the rotor enough to 
close the clearance.  This will fry the rotor almost immediately - I've had 
this happen.  If this is the cause, the next rotor will also fail quickly, 
but not necessarily 2 blocks from home!

There is usually evidence of this - look at the top of the rotor where the 
carbon contact rides and it will be obvious.  I have fixed this on one car 
by gently grinding down the centre dome of the cap - with the carbon and 
spring removed, thinking that to mess with the rotor in order to lower it 
was not a good idea what with all the recent rotor difficulties that we've 
had.  The downside - any spare or replacement distributor cap has to be 
similarly modified, and sometimes it will be years later before that 
happens, so remembering to do it might be a problem.

Listers should note that I and a few other people feel that this clearance 
problem may be contributing to the rotor failure problem - at least in some 
cases.  In other words, it may not always be a dud rotor.  This also may be 
why the propblem seems to be cured when some people revert to points, and 
the problem goes away.

Any others out there that can comment?

Earl Kagna
Victoria, B.C.
BT7 tri-carb
BJ8

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Lea" <clocks at midcoast.com>
To: "List Healeys" <healeys at autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 5:02 PM
Subject: [Healeys] Petronics


We fired up the Healey for the first time this year yesterday. I drove two
blocks and she died. After checking everything I could think of I have
decided that the problem is the Petronics ignition. I have heard that they
can cause problems and several of my LBC friends have gone back to standard
points. My question is when the fail, do they normally go all at once? This
time the car just died and I could get nothing more after that. Thanks, JL

James Lea