Pertronix distributor installation not going well

[collins_dan]

Lesson 1 - don?t mess with a well running car. You would think I would know that after 13 years of lotus ownership. A few years ago, I had qed?s 360 cams installed to replace l2 cams in hopes of a bit more torque, but the performance was not impressive. I still had the original 23D distributor and thought replacing it with a new pertronix set-up including new coil and plug wires might help. I was hoping to have the cams degreed and dyno?d at the same time, but that will need to wait. I have a shop doing the work, because they have the dyno and a couple of problems have come up that are likely related. The distributor is in, but is loose laterally. Does the pertronix require a clamping plate that the 23D did not? Second problem is that the engine is misfiring at 4K rpms. Could be the loose distributor, I would think. Could also be the new coil is faulty? Wrong pertronix distributor? Although I doubt this as I got it from Dave bean. I am also still having a voltage problem starting the car, but I don?t think that is contributing to the problem as I checked voltage going to the coil and it was over the 12v, which the pertronix requires. Any thoughts and advice appreciated. My thought is start with getting the distributor tight, next check voltage to coil, next check timing, next swap out coil for old coil (it is the same), lastly put back in old 23D, so I can bring it home and work on it myself. Thanks, Dan

[1owner69Elan]

Does the pertronix require a clamping plate that the 23D did not?

Not quite sure what you mean about no clamping plate on the 23D?

Both the 23D and Pertronix use a clamp to hold the distributor in the correct position.

Below is the clamp on the Pertronix, in situ:

[Davidb]

Collins-Dan: The coil you use with Pertronix is critical-it must be the 0.6 ohm they specify or you will have problems as I did. The distributor must be clamped of course-how is yours being held in? And you must have at least 12 volts to the coil-run a separate wire to check.

[rgh0]

If the distributor is not fully inserted it will have lateral movement. it can hang up on the clamping plate that holds it and given the location its hard to see the problem

cheers
Rohan

[collins_dan]

Ok. The clamping plate looks the same. The issue must not that it is not inserted far enough in. Thanks, Dan

[Galwaylotus]

Make sure you are measuring the voltage under load (cranking). I had an issue with earthing that only showed when the system was under load. I'd get 12v statically but it would drop under load so things didn't work. Took a while to find but once I did and corrected it the problem disappeared.

[collins_dan]

Thanks for the comments. It was the clamping plate. It needed a little bit of grinding to fit the slightly narrower diameter shaft on the pertronix. He was able to dyno the engine and it was very disappointing, but I will create a separate post. Dan