Restoration Wednesday, Pertronix Installed on the 911

posted in: Restoration Wednesday | 0

It’s Wednesday. And as such I’m writing to inform you of my latest foibles and a slamming amelioration. And it goes a little something like this… hit it. First, I hit the door as I imparted my extreme annoyance at six months of preparation, perspiration then pontification to my wife. How could the Pertronix Ignitor not work after I followed the instruction exactly?! Cause the instructions were wrong you say? That makes a lot more sense. There were. Still I was pissed.

I planned a rebuild of the original Zenith carburetors two years ago. Spent the winter putting them together, prepped the car over a weekend, waited another week to get the linkage cad plated because “while you’re in there.” Then, realized I needed new intakes and new gaskets. So I put starting the car on hold, you guessed it, a week. Then, finally I turned the key expecting a cough, a sputter, a “hey Paul, thanks for breathing new life into this tired old engine, I’m excited to fire up!” But no. Nothing of the snort.

So as many people do, I turned to the forums. Here is my posting trail on Pelican Parts. Turns out, I’m not the first to discover the Pertronix MR-LS1 Ignitor box directions which specifically reference the Marelli S112-AX or BX distributor make no mention of connecting to the CDI box. They say to connect to the coil and stop using long, drawn out sentences to describe their poor instructions. See the correct hookup diagram link from the guys on the forums. I do love the guys on the forums, thank you.

To be fair, this diagram came from Pertronix and folks at the technical desk couldn’t be more helpful as they alleviated my concerns that I blew their unit. Phew. As it were, I was mentally prepared to spend another $76 buckaroonies to buy a new unit plus wait the week while it shipped. But I didn’t have to. The car fired up yesterday with a little coaxing. It doesn’t sound half bad. But the half that does sound bad had me shutting it down to wait for a valve adjustment and new plugs before finally dialing it in. Patience, my friends, is a virtue much easier to endure when you know things work.

Photo credit: PartsKlassik.com, Marelli S112 BX Distributor

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *