[Tigers] Tiger charging normally until you turn headlights on

[Tiger Man]

Thanks Jerry,

I suppose I should have looked it up to start with, but I found a 
troubleshooting sheet from Pertronix that claims 8V is the lower limit.

While I think it would be tough to get the voltage that low in the system 
with a simple discharge, I am wondering if I simply left the ballast 
resistor on when I installed the Pertronix module.  That would drop the 
observed voltage a couple of Volts from what the rest of the car sees.

Might be interesting to remove the resistor and see what happens before I 
fix the charging system.

I think this cutout problem will go away when I fix the charging system 
problem, but it would be worrysome to think that if you lost your generator 
on a drive home at night if the pertronix module is going to stop the car 
from running.  You would hope that you could limp home as long as you didn't 
live too far away, just like you would with a points based car.

Thanks,
Steve

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jerry Mo Christopherson" <JCMC2006 at suddenlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 4:21 PM
To: "'Tiger Man'" <tigerman67 at hotmail.com>; <tigers at autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: [Tigers] Tiger charging normally until you turn headlights on

> I'm pretty sure the Pertronix needs a solid 12 volts.  If you are
> discharging with lights on you may not be getting full 12 to the ignition.
>
> Jerry Christopherson
> 9473187
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tigers-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:tigers-bounces at autox.team.net]
> On Behalf Of Tiger Man
> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 4:59 PM
> To: tigers at autox.team.net
> Subject: [Tigers] Tiger charging normally until you turn headlights on
>
> Hi all,
>
> I thought I would mention this one to the list, make sure I am going in 
> the
> right direction.  If I start my tiger and run the RPM's up, My amp meter
> shows about a 5 Amp charge (until the battery is charged back up).  If I
> turn my headlights on (with the RPM's up) it shows about a 3 Amp 
> discharge.
> The other interesting side effect is while driving around with the
> headlights on, the car cuts out dramatically but momentarily... like the
> Pertronix ign module is browning out or something?
>
> Anyway, since it charges at all, I assume that means that the generator
> works, and that I should go look at the Voltage regulator first, and if 
> that
> checks out, then move on to check the generator.  I think I still have a
> used spare generator on the shelf.  Will the local parts houses even know
> how to test those correctly anymore if I bring one down to them.
>
> Its been alot of years since I have had to work on a generator problem, so
> thought I would try to do the research on them.  I did run across the
> comment about polarity/charge on the charging system, especially one that
> has sat
> around for a while.   I had forgotten or never knew that, but since I am
> getting charge from my current system, I am more concerned with that on 
> any
> generator I might have sitting on the shelf.
>
> Just thought it was odd that a discharge condition would cause the 
> Pertronix
> module to brown out occasionally.  Wanted to make sure that I shouldn't be
> looking at lighting system draw to ensure that don't have something weird
> that is actually causing a massive draw and just maxing out the
> Generator/regulator.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve
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>
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