MSD Digital6 w/Pertronix

i too had the pertronix distributer that decided to go bad in a parking lot 50 miles from home. i got a small set of tools and a $40 cheapo points distributor and did a 105-degrees-outside middle of the afternoon distributor swap and got home fine. i sent the ignitor portion to pertronix and it was bad. sounds like yours is starting to go bad as well. i ended up ditching the pertronix billet distributor because it has no stops for the mechanical advance and i ended up breaking some springs. so, i wasted 300 bucks on a distributor that's sitting in my garage and taking up valuable space. i went with the msd plug and play for the same price, much better distributor, imo. i still run the second strike box, though. good luck and i hope this helps!

blue 69 camaro:

I tried a Pertronix in a 61 Vett i had and with it in there you had to crank and crank and crank to get it started then it would develop a intermittent miss. I did all the recommendations , elimated the ballast resistor, double grounded the thing, nothing worked. Then I Jerked it and put the points back in after that 1/2 a crank it would light off and run to 5500 like a scaluded cat. I think thier junk my self, get read of it and try a 6AL MDS if you want a GOOD electronic ignition - only my thoughts.

Thanks for the responses, Is it odd that the car runs fine without the MSD and won't even start with it hooked up? Could there be a problem with the Pertronix handling the increase in voltage. MSD told me that the Digital 6 put out the most power in there line.....??

i have a pertonix H.e.i with less than 3,500 miles on it and sometimes it will get absolutley no spark to the plug wires when it is getting power to the coil. i would switch to an msd any day.

After going through two Ignitor II's, I went back to points until I could afford the whole MSD shebang (sp?). I now have the Digital 6, spark plug wires, and the Pro-billet Dist. Coil is also from MSD. Luckily, the Pertronix went out in the driveway. I did everything the instructions stated. No external regulator, new alternator. Oh well, I could not be more happy with the MSD set-up.

Great :sad: Is it this one you all had problems with?
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PNX-D100700&N=700+115&autoview=sku

I had used the Ignitor II conversion module with the flamethrower coil. It replaced the points in my dist.

I think you can buy replacement electronics. Cheaper than a new distributor.

blue69camaro said:

Could there be a problem with the Pertronix handling the increase in voltage.

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I don't think that is an issue. The only interaction with the MSD is a trigger signal which is low voltage. Of course, there is also the coil output but that only goes from cap input to cap output, not through the distributor electronics.

I run the MSD Digital 6 box and it works very well. Great product, imo.

The Pertronix that I have is the conversion unit installed into the stock dist. It is an older one, I think I've had it in for around 8 years. I've have done diagnostic work with MSD on the phone with me, they even transfered me to a engineer to have me check everything they could think of. They are sure the MSD is not the problem, they said the digital 6 is their most reliable unit and they are even hesitant to say its the Pertronix, they say it should work fine with it and if it is bad it would not work at all. What do you guys think?
I would think if a electronic component is bad it would be completely dead.
As far as MSD distributors go whats a good choice? At least it would plug right in to the box!