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MG TD TF 1500 - One Way to Kill a Pertronix Igniter

I've spoken of my success with pertronix Igniters for about 15 years now. And never had one fail. Most failures that I know about have been caused by users having wired them up improperly. Guess who found another way to do that?

One very significant difference between a Pertronix ignition and an OEM points ignition is the presence of two wires (red and black) coming out of the distributor. If you look at the attached image you can see the wires coming out of the side of the distributor and leading to the terminals of the coil. This is a negative ground LU146LS Igniter. You might note that the wires are run along the left side Stay Tube Ass'y and attached to it with tape.

The day before yesterday was a hectic one in which I was in a hurry to reinstall the distributor after having to totally disassemble the distributor to do a LBWeld repair to attach one of its clips. In the course of my anxiety my addled brain mistook the inner steering column for the stay tube. I taped the wires to the steering column. The car fired right up, as I expected it to. Next step was to back out of the garage and go for a test drive. Only other thing that had to be done was to back around my Focus Wagon in the driveway. I got about halfway around when the engine abruptly quit. Had to be a loose wire that I hadn't properly attached. Both Igniter wires were attached to the coil. Then I spotted that which be seen in the following image. Bud



Bud Krueger

The inner steering column turns with the steering wheel. Wires taped to the column move with it. When the slack is taken up - guess what happens - Yep, the wire breaks!! The attached image shows the broken wire at the module.

It took me about 5 minutes to reinstall the 'old' LU146. I have another LU146LS that I have already installed. The wires are following the stay tube this time. Bud


Bud Krueger

Ouch. But don't feel bad. Even though I didn't break anything I did do stupid. I was adjusting the brakes, finished the front and couldn't wait to test them out. I let down the front end and jumped in the car for a test drive. But the car wouldn't move forward or backward. It went into gear and the engine would rev but no movement. It took me a minute or two to realize that the rear of the car was still on jack stands. My old man would have never let me live that down.

Tim
TD12524
Tim Burchfield

Bud - similar experience here - only I wired the ignitor backwards (I only spent 40 years working electronics - how was I to know ;)
Got a new ignitor one level up that has a diode in the line going to the so I don't make that mistake again. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

Hi Bud,

If only you Americans would fit the steering wheel onto the "proper" side i.e. the RHS you wouldn't have had this problem. Just thought though I had better go and check that the steering column isn't wearing through the main battery cable on my RHD TF!

Cheers
Jan
J Targosz

What did you do with the condenser clamp to have room for the adaptor?


W_Mueller

Bud, we should start a thread on stupid things we have done working on our cars over the years. I have thrown an MGB oil drain plug into the woods with the oil (many years back when that was acceptable), spent hours cranking an engines with the timing out 180 degrees, steel sliver stuck to eyeball (wear safety glasses now), and almost lost a finger when a spring compressor slipped. My list could go on for a long time! At least you had no blood or ER visit involved so not bad. You should have great mountain fall weather driving your way really soon. George
George Butz

Herr Mueller, I think the word is einfacht. Just remove the entire plate and mount the module on a new plate. Bud

George, we've talked about that thread before. I could add quite a few. But I have to acknowledge that this one got rid of my gearbox rattle. Bud
Bud Krueger

Thank you Bud

now I've seen such a new plate without the clamp (AS).
W_Mueller

This thread was discussed on 05/10/2017

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