Dads old ‘67 1600

[justin-311]

Just started today with the Pertronix 1741 kit and Flamethrower 3.0 ohm coil. It seems pretty straightforward except for the condenser piece. Electrical is not my strong suit and I’m hoping there’s an expert that can clue me in.

When I remove the slot for the new Pertronix wires, I’ve got a clip with a wire to the condenser and then one towards a firewall harness.

From reading a few other threads, I don’t need the condenser, correct? If I don’t, what does the other wire get attached to?

I was basing my install off this thread: viewtopic.php?t=30008
Maybe the wire just stays unused?

Also my #1 cylinder is at the lower left in the rotation. I’ve seen talk of the being ok and backwards this way. Should I be looking to get it positioned at upper left?

Thanks!

[justin-311]

I traced the wire from the distributor/condenser mount to the harness where I am 98% certain someone changed the color to white. That wire had previously been connected to the - on the old coil. (Sorry no pic).

So, now I have black from Pertronix distributor unit going to the -on the new coil and the red from the Pertronix distributor unit, along with the black/white stripe wire from the cars harness, going to the + on the coil.

Gave it some starting fluid and fired up much easier than it has more recently. Still a bit smoky and smells a little rich so I likely have some carb work to do but I feel like this was a good step today!


Black coming from the condenser/distributor going to the harness.

IMG_7694.jpeg

White spliced into black coming from the harness and was going to the old coils - terminal.

IMG_7695.jpeg

[Gregs672000]

I'm afraid I can't help on the wiring but it sounds like you got it (?). Regarding the distributor, what matters to the engine is that the spark occurs on the correct stroke, i.e. the compression stroke, and that is determined by the valves. 1 and 4 pistons are both up at the same time, but one of them is exhausting and the other is compressing. Obviously you want the spark to occur when it's compressing (all valves closed) and not when the exhaust valve is open and it's pushing the exhaust out. So long as the sparks are occurring in the proper sequence the engine doesn't care. You can fix it if you want, but I think you would need to remove the distributor, turn it/rotator shaft 180 degrees and mess with the gears and off-set slots and that hardly seems worth it so long as you know which cylinder is what... yours is read 1,2,3,4 left to right, while (most) of ours are 1, 2,3,4 right to left (or front to back). Firing order remains 1,3,4,2 of course, you just have to know which cylinder is which! Won't make any difference in how it runs!

[justin-311]

Thanks Greg. Electrical is my nemesis but I think I’ve got it for now. Just need to tidy up the old wires a bit now that they’re are not needed.

I re-gapped the plugs to .040 and that seems to have helped with running a little rich.

I do need to do the valves but that is for another day, I’m spent.

[JT68]

Your old points wire and condenser are not used. Throw away the condenser and tuck the wire back into the firewall (it should be disconnected)

The only wire on the coil- minus terminal should be the black pertronix wire. (no longer the points wire)


You are correct on both points regarding the number1 wire position --- the standard position is upper left (11 o'clock), so that is wrong.

Also correct that It doesn't matter which terminal is number one as long as the rotor points there at TDC#1.

(whomever assembled the engine screwed that up because now it is non standard, so troubleshooting problems can be more difficult, but functionally, there is no diff if you are aware of it)

[justin-311]

Thanks JT68. I don’t really want to get into redoing the distributor right now, too many other things needed on this one. As long as I know what I’m working with, I’m good. Well save that all for when I upgrade the engine

[justin-311]

So I’m planning on doing the valve clearances this weekend and I am reading from the wiki that the R16 is 0.17 for both intake and exhaust. What do I do after I get the engine warmed up and to TDC on #1 to adjust the valve? It’s been a while since I’ve done valves and last was on a VW bug. Are both valves set at TDC for the given cylinder and the I move to the next? Tried to look for some YouTube videos but didn’t find much.

TIA