Distributor Question

[barth4567]

I have a 1972 z and want to switch it over to a pertronix ignition or something similar.I like the pertronix because it keeps the stock look and it seems reasonably simple to install. Do you retain any of the original wiring( or interior pieces) at all or do you basically use the shell. I have an extra distribtor and the wiring looks bad, however the rest looks great. Hope this is not a dumb question.:stupid: Thanks in advance for any help. John

[EScanlon]

John:

I just recently upgraded two Roadster distributors to the Pertronix Ignitor and they are pretty simple.

But unless you're going for a complete "concours" competition, most everybody accepts upgrading the stock point dizzy to the E12-80 module and dizzy without penalty.

The Pertronix simply replaces the points, and now you have to route two wires out of the distributor to the coil. Their instructions say to NOT bypass the resistor and to wire the resistor IN-LINE, but the Z and the Roadster both shunt power to the coil directly on START mode and as such you'd never start the car following the Pertronix instructions since it would never be powered in that mode.

The E12-80 Module Distributor is a straight forward swap, and it is an OEM dizzy.

By the way, welcome to the club, hope to see you come spring and summer in some of the outings here in the Pac-NW.

Hope this helps

Enrique

[barth4567]

EScanlon : Thanks for the help. My car is a work in progress. I hope to get out to a few functions later this year. Thanks again for your help. John

[zeiss150]

I second the idea of using the 280ZX electronic dizzy. Thats what I did and it works great. Go to a junk yard and get a dizzy from a 79-80 280ZX and make sure that the module on the side of the dizzy says E12-80. If it doesn't it will have E12-92. I used an E12-92 untill I could find an E12-80 and it seemed to work just fine. Make sure that the magnet isnt broken in the dizzy (good luck with that one). My magnet was busted but I just put it back together and it works fine. If you switch to the electronic dizzy I highly recomend doing the 70amp ZX turbo altinator switch as well other wize you will burn out your punny 40 amp altinator in about a month. All of the mods I just told you about are gone over in great detail here...

http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/engine.html

I hope this info helped you out. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Matt-