Reply To: Petronix

[David Stevens]

Ed’s advice is on target. If you are having problems starting your Pierce, get the carburetor, starter, generator, points, plugs, coils and condenser up to snuff. Our 1247 and the 8 cylinder 1601 will fire right away every time and I haven’t adjusted anything for literally thousands of miles. But I had to get EVERYTHING right to begin with. Additionally a Pertonix Ignition is fine for a 12 volt car, but not for 6 volt older vehicles like our Pierce-Arrows. They require a MINIMUM of 5.9 volts to fire. If your battery is fully charged and starts on the 1st half crank, you may be OK. But the starter draw to crank a big engine like a Pierce means that the voltage will quickly drop below 5.9 while cranking and the Pertonix unit can probably fire only a millisecond as the starter draw is stopped. I do have Pertronix units on my 12 volt 1967 & 1973 Lincolns and the 1956 Imperial, but they won’t function reliably on a Pierce or other older cars with big engines and 6 volt systems…and I do carry a spare even though I’ve not needed one yet.