Pertronix Ignitor died...

[1BAD68]

Took the Charger out for a ride last week and everything was fine, went to start it yesterday to move it out of the garage and it wouldn't start.
So, I went through all the usual checks, check for gas, check for spark, check voltages, check compression, etc.
Here's what I found strange...
While checking for spark, when I held the #1 plug wire really close but not touching to a ground it would fire up, when I pulled it away from ground it instantly died.
So I went through all the voltage checks again, all voltages were fine so I swapped out the coil just to be sure, still not starting.
I kept all the old points stuff from when I installed the Pertronix so I figured I'll just install those instead and VROOOOM fired right up.

Can anyone explain why it would only fire up with the plug wire almost touching a ground?

[Corellian Corvette]

Is this an ignitor or an ignitor 2?

Are you running a full 12v to the ignitor? Unless you have a system capable of running a full 12v to the coil, then you cannot run it off the same resisted wire that you were running on your coil.

Conversely, you could have a low voltage situation if you're running it off the (+) side of the coil.

You need to find a switched full 12v source prior to the ballast resistor to run the red wire. In the Charger, that would be the blue wire going into the ballast resistor. You can simply get one of those gang-style connectors (like used on the fuse box) and you'll be in good shape.

If you're running a full 12v all the time then you burned out the unit.

Or - you could get an ignitor II and a Flamethrower II coil, in which case you could eliminate the resistor and run full 12v to the coil and the unit.

[1BAD68]

Well, it wasn't the Pertronix at all.
It turned out to be the condensor thing that is bolted to the base of the coil and has a wire going to the negative side of the coil.
I'm guessing that its some sort of noise filter from way back when my car had an AM radio. Anyway it was shorted to ground and obviously the coil couldn't build up a spark that way.
I just pulled it off and chucked it.

[histoy]

The noise suppression condenser should be attached to the positive terminal of the coil, not the negative terminal.