Holley carburettor adjustment needed

@GeorgS posted:

You can find articles/threads that the durapark has problems at higher RPMs, I have no experience with that myself.

@Panterdoug: i don't understand your reply about MSD issues to my Pertronix problems. I assume you refer to Mallory belongs to MSD. The Distributor I have is an older system, pre-MSD.

I apologise for creating confusion. I was referring to the MSD. Not the Petronix. It was just a suggestion from me that if a person was going to look for another system from what they had, consider the reported MSD failure rates,

I have used Petronix in another vehicle and no longer do. I actually went back to an original dual point distributor for that car. I had no issues with the Petronix but for my application, it had limitations.

I have read reports though that some users of Petronixs were carrying new spare units with them. Whether that was for lack of faith in it's dependability or actual bad experiences with them, I personally can not say.

The Pantera, because of the location and lack of access to the distributor, has unique considerations, I have found the Motorcraft point-less distributor to be 100% dependable over a period of 40 plus years. The only issue that I had with it was integrating the Ford control box for it to the Pantera tachometer. That is a general PITA and I found that the Pantera-Electronics Ignition Controller device as a great simple and dependable solution. That I have been using since 2007.

I hope that this clears up the confusion that I created for you but if you have further questions for me, I will attempt to answer them with my experiences.

I found the cause of my problems!
A beginner's or senile person's mistake and since I'm not a beginner....it means I'm becoming senile!

I checked the firing order on the distributor head several times, I checked several times that the wires were correctly connected to the correct spark plugs BUT, I trusted my memory for the numbering of the cylinders and I was so sure of myself that I never checked even though it was very easy since the numbers are in 1/2'' digits on my intake manifold.
And I numbered:
4
                          5
3
                          6
2
                          7
1
                          8

instead of

4
                         8
3
                         7
2
                         6
1
                         5

And so the spark instead of occurring on cylinder 7 occurred on cylinder 6 which had the intake valve open and the same between cylinders 5 and 8 with the intake of cylinder 8 open.

What is surprising is that the cylinders on the driver's side cylinder bank still worked, certainly very poorly, but it was indeed burnt gases coming out of the exhaust.

I'm now impatiently waiting for my car to come back from the body shop to put everything back in order and check that it starts like clockwork and that there is no more backfire.

I still have little consolation, it allowed me to learn a little more about modern electronic ignitions and the precautions to take when wiring.

Hey, that is great news.  Live and learn!

Congratulations.

This has been an interesting thread!

I hope that you have truly found the smoking gun!

In New England we say ‘Dawn breaks on Marblehead’.
Long story.

@rene4406 posted:

I found the cause of my problems!
A beginner's or senile person's mistake and since I'm not a beginner....it means I'm becoming senile!

I checked the firing order on the distributor head several times, I checked several times that the wires were correctly connected to the correct spark plugs BUT, I trusted my memory for the numbering of the cylinders and I was so sure of myself that I never checked even though it was very easy since the numbers are in 1/2'' digits on my intake manifold.
And I numbered:
4
                          5
3
                          6
2
                          7
1
                          8

instead of

4
                         8
3
                         7
2
                         6
1
                         5

And so the spark instead of occurring on cylinder 7 occurred on cylinder 6 which had the intake valve open and the same between cylinders 5 and 8 with the intake of cylinder 8 open.

What is surprising is that the cylinders on the driver's side cylinder bank still worked, certainly very poorly, but it was indeed burnt gases coming out of the exhaust.

I'm now impatiently waiting for my car to come back from the body shop to put everything back in order and check that it starts like clockwork and that there is no more backfire.

I still have little consolation, it allowed me to learn a little more about modern electronic ignitions and the precautions to take when wiring.

If it were true that you learn by making mistakes, then by now I should be a genius. Join the club.

I picked up 4406 today from the body shop. I swapped the cables of spark plugs 5 and 8 then 6 and 7. With the old carburetor and the points ignition it starts like clockwork, no more backfire and a stable idle. It's surprising how much better it works when the spark plug wires are all plugged into the right place.

I put the new carburetor back in and it runs properly although it still needs to be adjusted.

Tomorrow I replace the breaker ignition with the Pertronix.

...You messed up again, in your Drawing!! The #1 Cylinder is ALWAYS the Most FORWARD to the FRONT, Cylinder! Congrats on finding your blunder.

MJ

P.S.   Cable #'s 5 and 6 should always be Fully Insulated From each other, as they fire One after the Other, and are Prone to 'Cross-Fire'!!

If you are installing a Pertronix ignitor module into your distributor, it must have a SWITCHED 12v source.  Do not connect it to anything but that.   And not a full time on 12V source.  

@marlinjacka posté :

...Tu as encore raté ton dessin !! Le cylindre n°1 est TOUJOURS le plus EN AVANT vers l’AVANT, cylindre ! Félicitations pour avoir trouvé votre erreur.

MJ

Les câbles PS n° 5 et 6 doivent toujours être entièrement isolés l'un de l'autre, car ils tirent l'un après l'autre et sont sujets aux « tirs croisés » !!

It was on the right bank that I made a mistake by numbering the cylinder closest to me #8 instead of 5 then 7 instead of 6, 6 instead of 7 and finally 5 instead of 8. A true beginner's mistake.

@panterapatt posted:

If you are installing a Pertronix ignitor module into your distributor, it must have a SWITCHED 12v source.  Do not connect it to anything but that.   And not a full time on 12V source.  

I reinstalled the Pertronix ignition and the engine runs but much less well than with the points ignition, there are misfires.

It is not a module in the distributor but a complete box. It doesn't change anything about the switched +12V, I connected the electric choke to the same wire and it's an error because the box indicates an error code "switched 12V low". I am going to redo the wiring with a large section wire dedicated to the switched + 12V of the Pertronix box and another for the choke.
The two wires which transmit the signal from the igniter to the box run parallel to the high voltage wire between the coil and the distributor, I think this is also an error and I will modify the routing and put twisted wires between the igniter and the box .
I will also replace the old copper spark plug wires with "Pertronix" wires and route them neatly on supports, at the moment they are not fixed and there may be cross fires.

When everything is done properly I think it will go much better.

New Pertronix spark plug wires installed on brackets:

The engine ran fine with the points igniter and old spark plug wires, but poorly with the Pertronix ignition and old wires. It works great with the new helically wound conductor wires. Pertronix should clarify that its system is not intended to work with solid core wires.