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Dizzy advance lockout & trigger settings

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:54 pm
by usagoal
MS-II, V3.0, 2.881

I hate to beat this subject to death, but I'm attempting to resolve/revisit some of my ignition settings. I have a dizzy with Pertronix unit using direct coil control for ignition timing. Can someone verify my settings are correct? Not much is said about a Pertronix, other than to treat them like points (still doesn't help to choose ignition input capture)

1. In what position should the weights be locked - closed (retarded) or wide open (advanced). Does it not matter, as long as they do not move in respect to each other?

2. Because the Pertronix unit pulls a voltage low, I'm using a pull up resistor. What should the ignition input capture be - rising edge because Pertronix pulls a voltage low and it's inverted after the optoisolator?

3. Also, when testing pertronix unit with an LED tester during dizzy setup, I noticed there are 2 locations on the sensor)where the unit becomes triggered. They are maybe a degree or two apart. Which one should I use? The middle between the two points? The leading edge?

I'd like to keep my dizzy and coil control for a little while before I think about going EDIS. I have to start looking into that setup before spending the cash and time. Thanks again people!

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:45 am
by TheMonkey
i'm able to comment on only one of your questions, but thought you might appreciate a bump if you have not resolved this. somebody knows the answer to your other Q's. cool car by the way.

1) position of locking the distributor should not matter, as long as your rotor is phased properly, although i think most people lock it in at zero mechanical advance. check some past posts, will advocate even leaving your mechanical advance in place in your distributor if the advance curve is similar to your ignition control from MSII. this can keep your rotor directly centered with the lugs throughout most of the curve.

sorry, cannot help on other Q's.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:52 pm
by usagoal
Thanks Monkey for the compliments and bump.

I think I'm torn between locking the weights at "o" mechanical advance or locking them in full advance. I'll refer to the manual just for comparison, but it states that the dizzy will fire at some retarded value (which I don't know off hand) so the engine starts easier. This is base timing I"m assuming for the older stuff. So if I lock them in at "o", won't the timing be retarded by "x" amount? Shouldn't I be able to compensate for this using the trigger wizard?

I would love to install EDIS, but there's only so much cash to distribute to all my projects!