has anyone had trouble with these coils. i've had two of them fail on again off again and nearly went nuts trying to trace down the problem. they test good one time and then later on when the car won't start--sure enough it's the coil. maybe the engine heat gets to them? i've been advised to try an accel.my engine is just a standard 396 but i do have the pertronix electronic ignition on it.thanks for any advice or tips.

I have those coils on both of my Chevelles and have never had a problem with them. You should check the voltage supplied to the coil to make sure your electrical system isn't doing the damage. Since you have the Pertronix ignition installed, I certain you bypassed the resistance wire/balast resistor, right?

About the only ignition parts I've ever had any problems with were Accel parts. Nothing dramatic, but I've had much better results with stock Delco/Remy parts and Pertronix parts.

rich, i had the wiring done by a pro-so i'm unsure about bypassing the ballast resister. the instructions on the pertronix ignitor say to leave it alone.should the resister be bypassed or other wise modified? the resister would be some where along the line where the two cotton loom cover wires go to the coil from the harness-- and following them, that's how i could tell if it was bypassed or missing right?thanks for your time.

Well, depending on the year of your car, the cloth covered wire may be a resistance wire. If a balast resistor is used, there will typically be a white block of ceramic screwed to the firewall to which these wires will attach.

Pertronix instructions say their systems will work with a resistance wire, and that's the way I have it hooked up on my coupe, but it also says that if it causes any problems you might need to replace the resistance wire with a regular wire. What you really need to do is determine how many input volts are reaching the coil in the first place before you just assume the coil itself is at fault. The coil MAY be bad, but it may also be being damaged by some other issue within your electrical system.

Also, just to more fully understand things, how are you testing the coil and what is indicating to you that the coil is bad?

Epoxy or oil filled coil? Epoxy, failure prone, oil filled, good.

Leave the resistor in place and functional.

Regards,

Milton

thanks rich, i'll check how much power is getting to the coil as you say in the first place and start from there.they may be being damaged by something else as you said.the coils i've used were oil filled and they tested bad with a olm meter as directed in the manual,no resistance. i did find one blown fuse up by the alternator but that is the only clue so far. thanks everyone.

Here we go again/LOL!!!

Hope your not running a full 12v to the coil because that will cook it.

I have installed those coils in at least 10 customers cars over the past 5-6 yrs i have gotten backinto working on cars on the side for extra $ without 1 fail that i am aware of .

And you can bet these guys would let me know ASAP if thier cars/motors died for whatever the reson.

I have had 1 of those coils on my own car for at least 7-8yrs and it's still going strong too.

But devilsadvocate and his very experienced & well respected ign guru friend Dave Ray have both not had so good exp with those coils from what he has stated here in the past.

Maybe when they 1st came out they had some reliability issues that they corrected before i started to use them on customers cars and mine too and thats why i have never had a failed pertronics coil.

I like them becasue they look stock,fit in stock coild bracket,but give you a little more umph then a stock coil can if the rest of the ign system is up to the task of utilizing that aditional umph & getting it to the plugs. That additonal power the the slightly hotter coil ais often lost/sucked up in low quality hi resistance dist cap & rotor with cheap hi resistance AL contacts insted of barss or copper contacts with less resistance along with having low quality hi resistance plug wires with graphite core that dont carry as much juice to the plugs vs spriral core plug wires with 5x-10x less resistance then stock wires & thats not covering everything either.

Scott

o.k.--the ballast resisiter was not removed(says mechanic).how many volts should get to the coil and how should it be tested?(ignition switch on and on start etc.)i'm sort of a dumbass when it comes to electricity.thanks for any help.

Well, I KNOW, not just assume or "think", that the Pertronix epoxy coils are made in Taiwan, the oil filled ones in Indiana. The oil filled ones are the same as the NAPA and other good quality coils, the epoxy ones are failure prone, very failure prone. This info is from ME, my presonal experiences, nobody else's, from using those coils for a few years now.

As I asked, epoxy or oil filled?

Regards,

Milton

As I asked, epoxy or oil filled?



How do you determine which is which?

sorry guy, it was one of each that failed. the oil filled one was sort of on again off again--in other words it worked sometimes and sometimes didn't. the other one is just no good.i'm still running down the reason with checks and such. thanks for the help.

Shake the coil, gurgling sound like liquid, oil filled, no gurgle, epoxy.

I have had ONE oil filled coil fail, and a bunch of epoxy ones go dead.

Regards,

Milton

Pertronix failed on me too. I ended up putting the 20 year old OEM still no problem.

Why would you leave in the resistor for HEI?

Dan

Pertronix Ignitors are NOT an HEI, they don't make anywhere near HEI voltages, don't run more than what the spark plug needs to fire it, EXACTLY like a points ignition system does. An HEI extends the dwell time, so the coil can saturate with voltage more than any other inductive system or points.

Regards,

Milton

Used the pert and coil on my jeep with no issues. Fact it ran much better then the points it had but I never was patient enough to get them to work right.

just in case anyone is still following this saga--we traced it down to the coil. it was defective from the factory and would sometimes work perfectly and then crap out.it was the oil filled and there is really no explaination except it's like anything else.--sometimes they come right from the factory brand new and defective. iv'e had spark plugs do that. also switches and things for the house. let this be a lesson-always test with a part that you know is good if you can,and never take for granted that anything is o.k. just because it may check out that way.thanks a bunch to all who participated,you're a great bunch of guys.

That's why I always never trust a resistance reading specification on a coil. LOAD testing is the only real way to tell if the coil is experiencing troubles.

Regards,

Milton