Pertronix III set up

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C2ndLTpigeon

Mopar or no Car!
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I'm looking to hook up my pertronix distributor and coil. From the instructions it says positive wire goes to positive on coil negative wire goes to negative on coil my main question is the part on a coil instructions were it states to remove the ballast resistor to splice the wires together at a single point which wire's are going to which? And which wire is ignition going to the coil / distributor from the factory harness shown in the picture? Thanks
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1.........As usual let's start with "what are you working on?" Year make and model. Wiring changes colors through the years, and yours looks a bit "hacked"

2...DO YOU have and if you do not, GET a wiring diagram/ shop manual. You can download these for many years up through 73 for free, over at MyMopar

3...DO YOU have a test light, multimeter, and some alligator clip jumper leads? These are must haves for doing any electrical work on these cars

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I'm assuming your display of the coil primary wires is suggesting you lost which one is pos and which is NEG. Unplug the big connector at the OEM ignition box, turn the key to "run" and see which wire is hot. That is your coil +

What used to be coil NEG goes back to the OEM box and will not be used

Ballast..........disconnect all wires from the ballast. Turn the key to "run" and see which two are live. Those are actually jumpered together and are in effect one terminal point. Take one of those live wires. Jumper from one of them to first one and then the other of the remaining two wires. Put your test light/ or meter on the coil + wire. When it is hot, that is the correct connection.

The remaining wire went back to the OEM box and is not used.
 
If you are sure you want this permanent, unwrap the harness carefully, "chasing" the wires in the harness to the OEM box. You can then strip them out of the harness. Do NOT cut loose any wiring at the ballast. You can cut the connectors off and re-splice the wires together, then tape and tuck away. Only one wire is removed at the ballast--- the one going back to the OEM box.
 
OK done a bunch of these. Jump both Wires together on both sides an together if that makes sense. One side is the start circuit the other the run side. Just fine a single ballast that has a open back and jump it so it looks stock, Petronix likes 12v TO GET MAX PERFOMANCE.
 
1.........As usual let's start with "what are you working on?" Year make and model. Wiring changes colors through the years, and yours looks a bit "hacked"

2...DO YOU have and if you do not, GET a wiring diagram/ shop manual. You can download these for many years up through 73 for free, over at MyMopar

3...DO YOU have a test light, multimeter, and some alligator clip jumper leads? These are must haves for doing any electrical work on these cars

===========================================================

I'm assuming your display of the coil primary wires is suggesting you lost which one is pos and which is NEG. Unplug the big connector at the OEM ignition box, turn the key to "run" and see which wire is hot. That is your coil +

What used to be coil NEG goes back to the OEM box and will not be used

Ballast..........disconnect all wires from the ballast. Turn the key to "run" and see which two are live. Those are actually jumpered together and are in effect one terminal point. Take one of those live wires. Jumper from one of them to first one and then the other of the remaining two wires. Put your test light/ or meter on the coil + wire. When it is hot, that is the correct connection.

The remaining wire went back to the OEM box and is not used.

Car is a 1973 Plymouth Valiant.

I do have a factory manual

And yes I do have a test light and leads with clips.

Looks like the the black with yellow stripe that went on the ignition box and - coil will not be used then.
The brown wire goes to the ballast and the start position from what I see on the diagram.
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If you are sure you want this permanent, unwrap the harness carefully, "chasing" the wires in the harness to the OEM box. You can then strip them out of the harness. Do NOT cut loose any wiring at the ballast. You can cut the connectors off and re-splice the wires together, then tape and tuck away. Only one wire is removed at the ballast--- the one going back to the OEM box.

Ok so the wires that are on the ballast connectors, cut the connectors off and splice them together. Now each of the 2 connectors have 2 pins. Do I splice each pin set of wires as they are or all the left with the left and right with the right?

Thanks
 
Splice everything into one if you are going to use the original coil + wire(s). Sounds like the brown goes back to the "start" circuit. Make sure. Hook your meter to the brown and twist the key to "start." if it comes up battery voltage sounds like it is so There is at least one wire at the ballast you don't need I detailed that above. It went to the original OEM box.

Look at the diagram you posted. J4 going from ballst to OEM box is not used

J3-13BR(own) looks like the coil wire

F5-18B(lac)K is not used it was the OEM coil NEG

The two connections at the left side of the ballast in the diagram are essentially jumpered together, as "one"

So jumper those two to the coil brown and hook the old coil brown as power wire to the new Pertronix
 
Never dealt with dual ballast All my cars were or are 69 down. On a single I jump the ballast on the rear side out of sight. Nothing in sight to see. Would this be the wrong approach on the dual?
 
Splice everything into one if you are going to use the original coil + wire(s). Sounds like the brown goes back to the "start" circuit. Make sure. Hook your meter to the brown and twist the key to "start." if it comes up battery voltage sounds like it is so There is at least one wire at the ballast you don't need I detailed that above. It went to the original OEM box.

Look at the diagram you posted. J4 going from ballst to OEM box is not used

J3-13BR(own) looks like the coil wire

F5-18B(lac)K is not used it was the OEM coil NEG

The two connections at the left side of the ballast in the diagram are essentially jumpered together, as "one"

So jumper those two to the coil brown and hook the old coil brown as power wire to the new Pertronix

To get rid of everything completely couldn't I just follow all of the ballast wires and eliminate them from the harness along with the factory ignition box and all of its wiring and all I would have to do is run that wire that is hot in the start position which was the brown one to the positive side of the coil.
 
You can, but then you'll have a full 12 volts to the coil at all times. This could cause the coil to heat up. Not sure what all gets voltage from the ballast on your year model.

I ended up removing my ballast (66 Barracuda) and went with a low resistance coil (0.6 ohm).
 
Full 12v required, plus the correct coil and wires. Best I have tried thus far. Plugs gapped at 045.
 
You can, but then you'll have a full 12 volts to the coil at all times. This could cause the coil to heat up. Not sure what all gets voltage from the ballast on your year model.

I ended up removing my ballast (66 Barracuda) and went with a low resistance coil (0.6 ohm).

Coil is a flame thrower .32 ohm. Only coil I can use with the ignighter III distributor.
 
I think you should be good. I'm not familiar with their distributor. Might call Pertronix before you remove the ballast. And if you do, I would use connectors in case you ever want to go back.
 
To get rid of everything completely couldn't I just follow all of the ballast wires and eliminate them from the harness along with the factory ignition box and all of its wiring and all I would have to do is run that wire that is hot in the start position which was the brown one to the positive side of the coil.

I have attempted to explain. You go "eliminating all wires" and you will find there are other things "in there" the no longer work. Like, maybe, the alternator.

Let me put this another way........start "backwards" from the ECU connector (igntion box) Carefully untape as you go from the ignition box towards the ballast. Eliminate wiring hooked to the ECU. If you come across an in harness splice do NOT eliminate from there "forward." Then splice what's left all together at the ballast.
 
I mean it seems like it would make sense. Bringing the ballast wires to a single point seems to just eliminate them as they are not used. Meaning the 12V hot wire im looking for that is going the coil (brown) is the only one I need. Ohm resistance would be determined at the coil which means there should be no overheating. If it was a standard coil it would over heating would make sense.
I have attempted to explain. You go "eliminating all wires" and you will find there are other things "in there" the no longer work. Like, maybe, the alternator.

Let me put this another way........start "backwards" from the ECU connector (igntion box) Carefully untape as you go from the ignition box towards the ballast. Eliminate wiring hooked to the ECU. If you come across an in harness splice do NOT eliminate from there "forward." Then splice what's left all together at the ballast.

I will give it a shot in the morning and follow your instructions. After I remove the ECU box and its wiring being sure not to remove a wire beyond a harness splice. Once I get to the ballast wires I will post a pic to confirm which will get spiced together.
 
Okay so this morning I pulled the ignition ECU connector and traced the wires. The only ones that I cut we're the ones from the back of the ballast connectors which were the light blue with yellow and the green with red. The other three wires going from the ignition box were the black and Yellow the Brown with white and the gray to going to the old factory distributor and the other going to the negative side of the coil which are not going to be used. So it seems everything is done correctly so far leading me to the last part which is bringing the ballast wires to a single point. Based on the picture I've shown it looks like the left side has a dark blue wire and a wire that was jumping the top and bottom pin which
I assume means nothing which can be cut out and the right side has a brown wire and a small green wire going to I'm not sure if that's a capacitor or a ground meaning there's three wires left now do I cut all those off the connector and just solder them together as one?
What I started with
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wires I removed nothing major was cut from any other part of the harness
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The t wires I remove highlighted
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This is what I'm left with wondering if they all get soldered together.
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Sorry if I would like noob but electrical is not my specialty or my favorite to work with.
 
Ignitor III should have its own dwell control IIRC.

How reliable is it. I don't know.

My suggestion is this. Go buy a half dozen piggy backs terminals.
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Use them to jumper the Ignition J2A & J3 wires together at the ballast.
J2A is ignition 'Run' power and J3 is ignition start power.
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Another way to jumper them is two 1/4" wide male terminals. Then insulate and zip tie them so they don't move and chafe around and don't ground.

Then you can go back easily if it dies.
 
I wouldn't cut any factory wires. Every old Mopar I got had been similarly hacked up by gomers, always the steering column connector because they didn't know how easy it is to release the terminals.

You can buy (rare) short spade-spade connectors which let you connect the females together. Otherwise, just make a short male-male jumper wires, using Packard 56 terminals. Easiest is to just connect all 4 together. Note that 2 are already jumpered together (blue +12 V IGN source), so you only need jumper 3 together. The reason you have 2 ballasts is that one restricts the supply to the Mopar ECU. The other restricts the coil supply. You don't need either restriction with a later HEI ignition (GM or Pertronix Ignitor II or III). Note, the original Pertronix Ignitor does require the coil ballast.
 
I wouldn't cut any factory wires. Every old Mopar I got had been similarly hacked up by gomers, always the steering column connector because they didn't know how easy it is to release the terminals.

You can buy (rare) short spade-spade connectors which let you connect the females together. Otherwise, just make a short male-male jumper wires, using Packard 56 terminals. Easiest is to just connect all 4 together. Note that 2 are already jumpered together (blue +12 V IGN source), so you only need jumper 3 together. The reason you have 2 ballasts is that one restricts the supply to the Mopar ECU. The other restricts the coil supply. You don't need either restriction with a later HEI ignition (GM or Pertronix Ignitor II or III). Note, the original Pertronix Ignitor does require the coil ballast.
In the end I did not cut any other wires besides the two that were going to the ballast coming from the ignition box which would not get used. Otherwise I just open the harness and pulled the two that go to the distributor connector oh, and the ones black and yellow that went to the coil negative and to the ignition box which would not be used. Which only leaves two wires left the brown and the blue which I believe are ignition run and ignition start which I assume are the wires I would be jumping together like I have shown in the picture I have them crimped for now but plan to solder Unless a jumper wire is different then I will have to do it that way.
 
I'm sure your hard work will pay off big!!! Nothing better than turning the key and hearing it come to life! :)

Better than...no nevermind, nothing is better than that!

Which reminds me of a funny story. I did a tandem skydive for my 50th birthday. After freefalling for 60 seconds and pulling the cord to go under canopy, you could talk and hear. First real words out of my mouth (after a few woo hoos) was "that's better than sex". My tandem instructor replied " then you're doing something wrong"!!!!

But the guy had over 4,000 jumps so it's nothing to him!!

Can't wait to hear about your engine running!!!
 
Wow thats something, I dont know if ill ever do that but maybe when im older.

I plan to make a post of the build process when Im finished, keep an eye out!
 
Ignitor III should have its own dwell control IIRC.

How reliable is it. I don't know.

My suggestion is this. Go buy a half dozen piggy backs terminals.
View attachment 1715594976

Use them to jumper the Ignition J2A & J3 wires together at the ballast.
J2A is ignition 'Run' power and J3 is ignition start power.
View attachment 1715594967

Another way to jumper them is two 1/4" wide male terminals. Then insulate and zip tie them so they don't move and chafe around and don't ground.

Then you can go back easily if it dies.

Can you point me to where to buy those piggy back terminals? I can find dozens of version that one terminal is crimp on but none that are 3 way plugs.

Jim
 
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