Electronic ignition!

marmon77

Member
I put elec. ign. in both of my Ford 850's this past weekend. I know there has been discussions on here both pros and cons, all I can say is that for me they are great! These tractors sit for months at a time and I was always messing with the points.
Put them in, tractors fired right up.
 
Mine started right up too, but it lasted less than a week.
Probably a flaw in manufacturing, it happens. I had to put
the points back in so I could use the tractor.

Pertronix sent me replacement parts for free. Great service.
However, by the time they got here I was busy with other
things so I have never bothered to put the EI back in.
I didn't notice any difference in starting or performance
while it was running on EI, so no real need in my case.

Hopefully your experience is better than mine was.
Keep the points around for a while just in case! :)
 

I put them in my 960 probably fifteen years ago and my old Yale forklift not long after. I should get my tail in gear and put them in my 961 too.
 
Measure your dc resistance in the circuit, aka coil plus any ballast resistor resistance. If you have V/R = more than 5 amperes you can
expect a failure. Burns up the switching device (transistor, SCR, or MOSFET). They caution you about that in the installation
instructions.

For a number, assume your charging device is putting out 14.5V to charge your battery when running at PTO rpm and you don't want
more than 5 amperes:

Since V = IxR, solving for R = V/I = 14.5/5 = a minimum of 2.9 ohms, as I said either through the coil only or the coil and external
ballast resistor. Auto parts stores carry them and some have several taps to get the R you need.
 
I've seen several comments about EI failures and has me wondering how many are actually caused not by device failure, but rather by old, deteriorated original wiring harnesses.

Modern electronic devises need a clean supply of power, they do not like intermittent interruptions.

I've rewired several tractors and examining the old harnesses you will find very stiff insulation, abundant cracks in the insulation, bare sections where insulation is gone, and connectors hanging by only a couple strands of the wire or filled with corrosion. Attached picture is an example from an M&M that I rewired.

I've had my 51 8N Ford with side mount distributor for about 4 years. It had an alternator conversion and wiring had been replaced before I bought it. I put a Pertronix 12 volt negative ground EI in it several months ago and wiring looked good. Had it been original I would have replaced it.
a191242.jpg
 
Texas, I did notice that my condenser on the on e tractor was getting very hot. There wasn't an in-line resistor when I removed the points, so does that mean I need to add one if its getting hot?
 

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